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T CE— THIR'i 



ALL ABOUT 



petroleum:, 



AND THE 



GREAT OIL DISTRICTS 



OF 



CRAWFORD AND VENANGO COUNTIES, PA. 



THE MOST COMPLETE AND MOST RELIABLE 

DESCRIPTION OF THIS REMARKABLE 

REGION EVER ISSUED. 



BY 

ALEXANDER VON MILLERN, LL.D., 

PROFESSOR OF MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY, CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE 

ROYAL AND IMPERIAL ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES AT VIENNA, 

AND OF THE GKOLOG1CAL SOCIETY AT FBIBOUBG, AC. AC. 



» • « 1 » j u * 



l € I r ■ 



STud $orfc"r 



AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS' AG-ENTS, 
121 Nassau Street. 

1865. 



l l T 




ALL ABOUT 

PETROLEUM, 



^ 






AND THB 



GREAT OIL DISTRICTS OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
OHIO, WEST VIRGINIA, ETC. 



■ • ♦ * 



ROCK-OIL, OR PETROLEUM. 

The discovery of gunpowder supplanted the old 
system of warfare, with all its cumbersome siege in- 
struments ; the discovery of printing by Guttenberg ; 
of the power of steam and electricity, and the discov- 
ery of the gold fields of California, exercised their in- 
fluence upon the social history of the world ; while 
more recently, rifled cannon and iron-plated monitors 
have again revolutionized the system of warfare of the 
last century, — and now the discovery of a new mate- 
rial — petroleum — comes to exercise a yet incalculable 
influence upon the cpurse of all industrial pursuits, 
exciting, at the same time, the attention of capitalists 
and others, not only to the product of the rock oil re- 
gions of this country, but also to these regions them- 
selves, which are believed to extend from the south- 
ern portion of the Ohio valley to Georgian Bay on 



2 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

Lake Huron in Upper Canada, and from the Allegha- 
nies in Pennsylvania, to the western limits of the bitu- 
minous coal fields in the vicinity of the Missouri river, 
embracing an area of about fifty thousand square miles, 
a vast amount of which is, of course, undeveloped. 

WHAT IS PETROLEUM 

Many speculations have been indulged in about 
the origin of petroleum. Some think that it is the 
work of a coralline insect which exists underneath the 
coal formation in the rocks. Others insist that it was 
distilled by the heat of the eastern slope of the Alle- 
ghany mountains from the anthracite coal, andHhence 
flowed to the western slope of those mountains. Others 
again believe that petroleum is produced from layers 
of coal which are submitted to a low heat, and thus a 
gas is evolved, which being mixed with water soaking 
through the crevices, becomes condensed. Many im- 
pressions of fishes having been found in the rocks, 
some have held the idea that petroleum comes from 
fishes and reptiles, destroyed by some geological 
change in the present oil districts. 

Another theory of the formation of petroleum is, 
that petroleum being knowrilto be a hydrocarbon, com- 
posed of two gases, these gases are primary elements, 
indestructible and exhaust! ess in quantity. One of 
them — hydrogen — is constituted of water, and of 
course is as exhaustless as the ocean. The other is a 
constituent in all vegetable forms and in many of our 
rocks. One hundred pounds of limestone, when 
burned, will weigh but sixty pounds. The part driven 
off by burning is carbonic acid gas. Underlying the .„.< 
Oil Rock is a stratum of limestone of unknown thick- 
ness, but known to be upwards of one thousand feefffn** 
depth. The water falling on the surface and percola- 
ting through the porous sandstone that overlies the oil 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 9 

several weeks that they recurred with singular regu- 
larity a few minutes after eight o'clock in the evening 
when the engine was forced to stop for twenty minutes 
or half an hour. 



PETROLEUM EST THE EAST AND WEST. 

In the almost unchanged horizontal posture of the 
western coal measures no considerable fracturing or 
Assuring took place. Faults of all kinds are uncom- 
mon, and very small when they exist at all. The rise 
of the stratification from the Alleghany river towards 
Lake Erie is a fraction of one degree. The original 
contents of the rocks have therefore been preserved. 
Not so with the anthracite basins on the southeastern 
side of the great coal area. Crushed and upturned 
and overturned, contorted and fractured in every 
part, this part of the earth's crust has been dried and 
hardened, and exposed to chemical action from the 
superincumbent drainage waters, until its various for- 
mations — the coal beds included in the number — have 
been metamorphosed and partially recrystallized. — 
The oils which they contained have been lost by dis- 
solution and evaporation. The bituminous coals have 
become anthracites, and the last oil spring on the 
headwaters of the Lehigh, the Schuylkill, the Junia- 
ta, the Potomac, or the New river, ceased to flow ma- 
ny millions of years ago. In the west, on the contra- 
ry, in equally ancient, nay, in identically the same 
rocks, the petroleum still remains, having had no out 
let ; always hermetically sealed and under pressure. 
It remains partly condensed in coal beds and black 
shales, partly distributed through the sand rocks and 
limestones, and partly filling up the joints which the 



10 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

shrinking of ages has produced. Possibly a small 
portion of it may be held in caverns through the more 
soluble limestone strata. Especially important are 
the water-bearing horizons. 

THE GREAT RESERVOIRS OF PETROLEUM. 

The vertical cleavage pianes and few down-throw 
fissures which exist play but a subordinate role to 
these. Kain-waters percolate from every hill surface 
and valley bed, sidewise and downwards, leeching 
every permeable stratum that will give up its salt and 
oily contents. Along the outcrops of every coal bed 
issue innumerable springs of painted water. ' At the 
base of every great sand rock, and on the top of the 
clayey deposits next below it, collect the mixed pro- 
ceeds of the drainage in a standing sheet of oily brine. 
Capillary attraction and hydrostatic pressure perpetu- 
ally re-enforce the reservoir. The weight of rock on 
top and the pressure of disengaged oil-gas sendsats 
filaments forward and upward by every secret crack 
to the surface again, holding it in every part ready for 
an explosive rush into the air when an artificial outlet 
is provided. If there be no fissure in the locality, 
the oil wells descend to the sheet of water at about 
the same depth. Where fissures intercept them they 
are of various depths and fortune, for a well may pass 
a fissure where its wails are polished and tight to- 
gether. A well may also pass the water sheet where 
some change in the porosity of the rocks above and 
below has taken place to oppose a like obstruction. In 
some parts of the western coal field the dip is as high 
as five degrees, and the basins from five to ten miles 
wide. Sharp flexures make local dips of thirty degrees 
or more, and a central subanticlinal is sure to subdi- 
vide the basin. In the sesondary basins thus formed 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 11 

the wells are more perfectly artesian as to the salt 
water ; but it is upon the subdividing anticlinals that 
the gas and oil collect. In such regions it is asserted 
that all the blowing and many of the spouting wells 
are ranged along the summits of such anticlinals. In 
the case of some of the old gas-blowing salt wells, 
their actions demonstrate that they have been bored 
past one gas bearing stratum to another deeper salt 
water stratum ; for when the water is allowed to rise 
in the auger hole by stopping the pumps awhile, then 
the gas and oil no longer come up, the brine stopping 
their issue. In the case of neighboring wells of dif- 
ferent depths striking a slanting fissure, the one 
which strikes it highest up will deliver gas ; another 
striking it lower down, will deliver oil ; a third, strik- 
ing it still lower down, will deliver nothing but salt 
water. 

DANGEROUS QUALITIES OF PETROLEUM. 

The compressibility of coal-oii gas is one of its most 
dangerous qualities, increasing indefinitely the dangers 
of those explosions which annually cost so many valu- 
able lives. Confined in the walls of the gangways and 
rooms, it issues from innumerable cells or pockets, 
the larger of which are called " blowers " ; sometimes 
with the noise of heavy rain, sometimes with small 
reports. It collects among the timbers of the roof, in 
the upper galleries of the mine, in deserted portions 
of the colliery, and especially in those refuse accumu- 
lations of coal and slate called " gob" or " goaf," with 
which the miners pillar up the superincumbent rocks. 
These acres of worked out and filled up galleries be- 
come vast reservoirs of fire damp. The gas collects 
especially over the anticlinal rolls. From these great 
powder magazines, solicited by the least diminution 



12 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

of barometric pressure in the atmosphere, the gag 
rushes out to fill the working rooms. Long experience 
has shown that a falling barometer and explosions 
in coal mines always go together. But the mischief 
is accumulative. The vacuum produced by the first 
explosion is a new provocation to the world of back 
gas to leave its hiding place, come forward afresh, 
and produce another, and yet another, until the 
proportion of air to gas becomes too small to make an 
explosive mixture ; so that, like the stroke of light- 
ning, the coal mine explosion is not a unit, but a 
series, cause and effect reciprocally acting to produce 
the last result. 



THE LIMESTONE FORMATION. 

The petroleum which fills cavities in the Montmo- 
renci rocks is still unhardened, It flows in drops 
from a fossil coral of the Birdseye limestone there ; 
and at Pakenham it fills the cast moulds of large 
orthoceratites in the Trenton limestone to such an 
extent that a pint has been poured out of one. It is, 
perhaps, from these lower silurian fossil coralline 
limestones that the oil makes its way to the surface 
through the overlying Loraine shales to foim the 
Guilderland oil spring near Albany, according to 
Beck, through the Utica slate on the Great Manitoulin 
island, and through the red Medina shales at Albion 
mills, near Hamilton, according to Mr. Murray. 

The next great limestone in the ascending series is 
the Niagara, and Eaton early made known the oozing 
of petroleum from its fossil casts Hall describes it in 
Monroe county as a granular crystalline dolomite, in- 
cluding small laminae of bitumen, which give it a resin- 
ous lustre. Bitumen sometimes flows like tar from 
the lime-kiln. The corniferous limestone, next above 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 13 

the Niagara, has the cells of its fossil corals filled with 
petroleum, the remains of the gelatinous coral animal 
which inhabited them. 

The oil springs of Enniskillen, as well as the lake of 
solid bitumen in the same township, half an acre in 
extent and two feet thick, no doubt have their deep- 
seated sources not in the black shales of the region, 
but in the corniferous limestone underneath. These 
black shales belong to the base of the Portage and 
Chemung group. The wells sunk in them soon strike 
the argillaceous shales and limestones of the Hamilton 
group, and go through them toward the corniferous 
limestone, specimens of which yielded to Hunt's anal- 
ysis from 7.4 to 12.8 per cent, of bitumen, fusible and 
readily soluble in benzole. 



OTHER FORMATIONS CONTAINING PETROLEUM. 

In the blackish Marcellus shales, at the base of the 
Hamilton group, are found septaria or nodular concre- 
tions containing petroleum. The same phenomenon 
recurs at the top of the Hamilton group. Still higher 
up, the Portage and Chemung sandstones [formation 
viii,] are often bituminous to the smell, and contain 
petroleum in cavities, or hardened into solid seams. 
A calcareous sand rock in Chatauqua county contains 
more than 2 per cent, of bituminous matter. These 
are the rocks around the famous oil springs of the 
Seneca Indians. It is only necessary to ascend the 
series of these devonian sandstones to their upper 
part among the rocks of the Catskill group, or just be- 
neath them, to find oneself in the oil regions of 
northern Pennsylyania and Ohio, described by Dr. 
Newberry and others, and sufficiently treated of in the 
foregoing pages. 

There only remains to be noticed that anomalous de* 



14 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

posit of the Albert coal in New Brunswick, made fa- 
mous by long litigation and the discussion of geologists 
described dy Professor Dawson in his Acadian (xeol- 
ogy, and called by Dr. WetherilL of Philadelphia, Me- 
lan-asphalt. 

Its position has been misinterpreted by several ob- 
servers, who have reported it a volcanic injection of 
bitumen into a fissure of the earth, many feet in width, 
by the force of which large pieces of the wall rock 
have torn off and carried forward in the mass. It 
seems, however, pretty well made out, that it was or- 
iginally a horizontal bed or lake of petroleum, harden- 
ed and covered up by sand and clay deposits of carbo- 
niferous age, and afterwards upturned, bent over and 
fractured so as to assume its present posture. It is 
not properly a coal bed, therefore, but a mass of hard- 
ened coal oil, which can be, and, in fact, has been, 
mined like a coal bed, and the product used wholly for 
making gas. 

THE OIL REGIONS AND COAL BASINS. 

The connexion of the oil regions with the coal ba- 
sins of western Pennsylvania and Virginia, eastern 
Ohio and Kentucky, is, in good measure, a geograph- 
ical deception. The Oil creek rocks, dipping south- 
ward, pass five or six hundred feet below the coal 
measures. The nearest coal bed to the more northern 
springs occurs on the highest hill-tops, many miles 
away. The hills in the vicinity of some of the wells 
are capped by the conglomerate mass of the coal mea- 
sures at least a hundred feet thick. The shales and 
sandstones of the valley belong to formations X, IX, 
and VIII descending, called by the New York geolo- 
gist the Catskill, Chemung, and Portage groups, 
extending over all the southern counties of western 



ALL ABOUT PETROLUM. 16 

New York. The southern dip carries down these oil 
bearing rocks, and the wells must deepen in the same 
direction. Mr. Bidgeway reports the lowest oil bear- 
ing sand rock as capping the hills near Waterford, on 
Le Boeuff creek, and the same sandstones appear on 
Big French creek, full of plant remains. 

The following wells show the dip in a well marked 
manner : The Phillipps well, on Oil creek, is 460 
feet ; the Brawley well, at the mouth of Cherry run, 
503 feet ; the Cornwall well 530 feet ; the Avery well, 
over 700 feet, and at Titusville he estimates the 
proper depth at 1,000 or 1,200 feet. 

THE OVER-LAYING STRATA. 

In the Mahoning coal oil region in western Pennsyl- 
vania and eastern Ohio, near the line, the three oil 
bearing sand rock strata are beneath the lowest coal 
bed. The " Continental" boring at Edenburg, in 
Lawrence county, penetrated in descending order, the 
following formations before it struck the oil : First, 
the superficial drift, 80 feet thick. Second, sandstones 
and shales, 200 feet thick, the bottom layers of which 
consisted of fetid black shales, from which coal gas 
blew off with violence. Third, the first white sand- 
stone, 50 feet thick, arranged in three strata, a softer 
middle between harder upper and lower formations ; 
the whole mass said to be thin, going east, and hold- 
ing abundance of gas in its crevices. Fourth, shales 
and slates, 45 feet thick, charged with oil and gas. 
Fifth, the second white sandstone, 75 feet thick, soft- 
er, coarser, and tougher, or more difficult to bore 
through than the first, and full of gas ; after passing 
through which they struck the great oil stratum, 448 
feet from the surface. Crawford's boring, not far off, 
went down 580 feet through another shaley formation, 



16 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

and struck oil, supposed to come up through a crevice 
from the third white sand rock. 

INFLUENCE OF THE SAND-ROCK FORMATIONS UPON 
THE CHARACTER OF PETROLEUM. 

That there is an intimate connection between the 
character of these sand formations and the character of 
the oil which issues from them is indubitable. The 
rule among miners is, as stated by Mr. Clark in the 
" Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society," 
that the harder the rock may be to drill, the lighter in 
color, purer in quality, and smaller in quantity, will 
be the oil obtained therefrom ; and the softer the rock, 
the darker and more abundant the oil. 

The chemist of the Canada survey, Mr. Hunt, in- 
sists strenuously " upon the distinction between ligni- 
tic and bituminous rocks, inasmuch as some have been 
disposed," he says, " to regard the former as the 
source of the bitumen found in nature, which they 
conceive to have originated from a slow distillation. — 
The result of a careful examination of the question has 
however, led us to the conclusion that the formation of 
the one excludes more or less completely that of the 
other, and that bitumen has been generated under 
conditions different from those which have transformed 
organic matters into coal and lignite ; and probably in 
deep water deposits, from which atmospheric oxygen 
was excluded." 



PETROLEUM IN AN INDUSTRIAL POINT OF VIEW. 

As for the illuminating power, and the value of the 
light of petroleum, many photometric experiments 
have conclusively demonstrated that petroleum-light 
surpasses that of a stearin, or paraffin-candle two or 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 17 

three times ; that it equals photogen, and surpasses 
rape-oil, while it is much cheaper than any other oil. 
But it is not only as a direct illuminating material 
that petroleum is destined to play an important role, 
although it will enter at no very distant day largely 
into the fabrication of illuminating gas, giving to this 
branch of industry an entirely new direction ; petro- 
leum will become also the great motive power of the 
future, depriving coal and wood of their former undis- 
puted reign. It is already extensively made use of 
in the manufacture of candles, varnish, lubricating 
compositions, and many other articles, and hardly a 
day passes without new qualities and properties being 
found in this old, but to us new, material. Every day 
its utility in all branches of industry increases, while, 
also, every day adds to the quantity of supply — and 
considering all these facts, one can hardly avoid the 
conviction that petroleum is destined to inaugurate a 
revolution on the field of industry. 



PETROLEUM AS FITEL. 

As a fuel, petroleum enters into numerous French 
patents. The people of the Caspian sea mix it with clay ; 
the Norwegians with sawdust and clay. The refuse 
charcoal of the French furnaces is mixed with charred 
peat or spent tar, and tar or pitch is added, and the 
whole ground or coked. As an illuminating agent coal 
oil is fast supplanting the animal and vegetable oils. 
It has always been a lamp oil of India. It lights the 
streets of Genoa ; but its natural odor is so disgusting 
that its use in Europe was, for a long while after its 
discovery in Lombardy, interdicted. Since the refin- 
ing process was discovered, the trade has spread to 
every city of the Old and New World, and the annual 
number of patents for new forms of lamp and new kinds 



18 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

of candle shows how completely the kerosenes and par 
affines are banishing the whale oils and tallows from 
the market. The outlet for the coal oil wax in England 
and on the continent it said to be very large, not less 
than twenty tons per week being condensed from bog- 
head cannel alone. " The superiority of the petroleum 
over the paraffine wax is admitted by consumers of 
every kind, insolubility being the proof of merit," 
The cold weather in America is favorable to this man- 
ufacture. 

AMMONIA AND BENZINE. 

Ammonia is extensively manufactured from the En- 
glish gas-water, which contains it in combination 
with the volatile acids, sulphuretted hydrogen, and 
carbonic acid, and in the form of chloride ammonium. 
Ten gallons of this water are distilled from a ton of 
Newcastle coal. The sulphide and carbonate are reduced 
by muriatic acid. 4,000 tons of the crystallized muriate 
are made annually in England. Benzine or eupion, one of 
the products of coal oil distillation, more explosive than 
turpentine, has supplanted the latter in the arts since 
the great rebellion has diminished almost to nothing 
the production of the southern pine forests. Hence 
explosions and conflagrations are more numerous. The 
demand for benzine in England has become unlimited, 
especially in early and late spring. American, i. e. t 
United States petroleum, containing much more ben- 
srine than Canadian petroleum, rules higher on that 
account. 



PECULIAR QUALITIES OF PETROLEUM. 

Petroleum, when shaken, yields a few bubbles ; but 
they sooner subside than in almost any other liquid, 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 19 

and the liquor resumes its clear state again almost im- 
mediately. This seems owing to the air in this fluid 
being very equally distributed in all its parts, and the 
liquor being composed of particles very evenly and 
nicely arranged. 

The extensibility of this oil is also amazing. A drop 
of it will spread over several feet of water, and in this 
condition it gives a great variety of colors, that is, the 
several parts of which this thin film is composed, act 
as so many prisms. 

The most severe frost never congeals petroleum in- 
to ice, and paper wetted with it becomes transparent 
as when wetted with oil ; but it does not continue so, 
the paper becoming opaque again in a few minutes, as 
the oil dries up. 

The bitumen employed by the ancient Babylonians, 
instead of mortar, to unite the sun-dried bricks in 
their colossal structures, was evidently petroleum ; 
and the state in which the mighty ruins still exist shows 
how imperishable a cement this material afforded. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF PETROLEUM. 

Petroleum of various shades, from the green of the 
Barbadoes springs to the pale yellow of Amiana, has 
been long known to possess certain medicinal proper- 
ties. The rock oil of Barbadoes, or as it has been 
vulgarly but improperly called, Barbadoes-tar, has 
been found a useful stimulant to torpid bowels, pro- 
moting in such a temperament the alvine discharge. 
The petroleum found at Gabian, near Beziers, in 
France, has been called Glean Gabianum. It has been 
given as an excitant expectorant ; and mixed with 
tincture of assafoetida, in tapeworm. Lucas, a German 
physician, recommended it both inwardly in the form 
of emulsion, and externally in the way of friction over 



20 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

the abdomen, as an effectual means of curing tape* 
worm. 

The chief value of petroleum, however, is as an 
external remedy in a variety of cutaneous affections. 
But petroleum, either by itself, or combined with any 
of its solvent essential oils or spirit, would in general 
act rather as an irritant and rubefoecient upon the 
skin in such cases, than as a purifying, cleansing, and 
soothing application. 

In this dilemma the idea occurred of incorporating 
the green rock oil with fine curd soap. Thus a truly 
balsamic compound has been obtained. When the 
soap, used with water in the usual way, has cleaned 
out the cutaneous pores, a film of the petroleum is 
deposited in them, powerfully remedial in many of the 
morbid affections of the skin 



PETEOLEUM AS A TOILET ARTICLE, 

Such petrolized soap has been found to be quite a 
specific in the prickly heat of tropical regions, and of 
equal efficacy in the fiery eruptions incident to many 
persons in temperate climates. Hitherto, no method 
had been devised for modifying efficaciously the alka- 
linity of soap, which being, in the best white curd ar- 
ticle, a definite saline compound of stearic acid, and 
soda in its most caustic condition, to the extent of six 
per cent, cannot fail to excoriate delicate skins. By 
the happy invention of compounding petroleum with 
soap, each particle of that salt is enveloped with a film 
of balsam, which mitigates its irritant without interfer- 
ing with its detergent quality. Hence we may account 
for the preference given to the petroline soap by all 
who habitually use it at the toilet- table. 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 21 

SALUBRIOUS EFFECTS OF PETE OLEUM VAPOR. 

The number of persons handling coal oil is estimated 
at from 30,000 to 50,000. Its effect upon the health 
has been a subject of much speculation. Mr. E. G. Kel- 
ley, a chemist, says that his men sleep and live in 
the factory, and enjoy remarkably good health, some 
of them becoming fleshy and robust who were not so 
before. Weak lungs and asthmatic constitutions find 
great relief from inhaling the petroleum vapor. 

MANUFACTURE OF GAS IN THE FORM OF GOAL OIL. 

A well-known gas engineer in London proposes that 
the manufacture of gas be carried on in the immediate 
vicinity of the mines. Here the coal is to be sub- 
mitted to distillation in the simplest manner, and the 
products collected in the form of coal oils ; the oil so 
obtained may then be submitted to purification from 
the nitrogenous and sulphur compounds which are so 
fruitful a source of complaint, when they find their 
way into illuminating gas ; it being thought far easier 
and cheaper to remove all the nitrogen and sulphur 
from a gallon of coal oil, than from the one hundred 
and fifty or two hundred feet of gas of which it is the 
representative. When the oil has been properly pre- 
pared, and purified from all deleterious substances, 
it is to be conveyed to the place where it is needed, 
and there converted into gas. The work necessary for 
this purpose need only consist of a few retorts and a 
gas holder or two. The retort being heated to redness, 
a little of the oil is allowed to flow into it ; when in- 
stantly it is converted into permanent gas, and carried 
through a, pipe into the gas holder, of the ordinary con- 
struction, from which the illuminating gas is supplied 
by the mains, as heretofore. 



22 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 



STEAM FOR OCEAN STEAMERS NEW USES FOR PETRO- 
LEUM. 

The subject of the expense of fuel for the use of 
ocean steamers has been an all-important one whenever 
a line of trans -Atlantic steamers has been proposed. 
We learn that an ingenious mechanic of Meadville, 
Pennsylvania, is engaged in experimenting upon a 
plan to produce from naphtha, or the residuum of pe- 
troleum, an article of fuel that will be used, at an im- 
mensely reduced cost from coal, for generating steam 
on board steamships traversing the ocean. The ex- 
periment is being practically tested at the Downer 
refinery in Corry, Pennsylvania ; where it was giving 
much satisfaction, producing a heat as powerful and 
regular as any ever produced from either bituminous 
or anthracite coal. It must be remembered that this 
article is produced from what was at first rejected as 
the debris or useless residuum of petroleum, but is 
now coming into market as one of the most valuable 
products. 

NEW COLORS FROM THE RESIDUUM. 

Among the most favorite colors for silk goods, rib- 
bons, &c, in the market, is a color produced from the 
residuum of the petroleum and manufactured at the 
Humboldt refinery, near Plummer, in the Oil creek 
region. It is a bright and fixed cerulean blue, or per- 
haps a shade darker, but still as brilliant, and is called 
the Humboldt color. The process of manufacturing 
it is kept a profound secret by the discoverers, who 
are German chemists, and do not speak, if they under- 
stand English. No stranger is allowed to enter their 
works, except by special permission. It is stated that 
the Humboldt Company produces these colors from a 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 23 

combination of naptha and tar. The refinery uses 
twenty-six stills, and probably three to four hundred 
barrels of petroleum per day when running at full ca- 
pacity. Another delicate and fashionable color, a light 
blue, called " Azuriena,'' is produced from petroleum, 
as well as the now famous and popular color " Magenta" 
and we hear that still another color called the M Rosi 
na," is in course of production from petroleum. These 
colors are ascertained by dropping the oil in a certain 
state into water, by which the most beautiful hues ar% 
brought out. It is confidently believed that petroleum 
will in some shape form one of the most valuable in- 
gredients combining the most charming tints ever 
transferred to canvas. Then there are many articles 
known in commerce as benzine,benzoin, naphtha (which 
is used instead of turpentine), the lubricating oils, 
paint oils and we do not know how many other pro- 
ductions, all having a base in this wonderful treasure 
of the earth. The residuum has recently been pur- 
chased in large quantities by parties in Williamsburg, 
for some purpose not known to the public. It is also 
regarded with favor as a disinfectant agent, and it is 
said that no case of yellow fever, smallpox or other 
epidemic has been known to exist, where it is 
produced in large quantities. In Italy, upon a recent 
occasion, petroleum was used with entire success in 
driving away an epidemic that was raging in a town. 
The objection to petroleum works being located in cit- 
ies is being removed. The Jersey City Council, in 
which city there are a number of petroleum works, or 
refineries, has withdrawn its opposition to their being 
located within the city limits. 

TRANSPORTATION AND STORAGE OF PETROLEUM. 

At first, it was thought that petroleum was highly 
combustible, and many Governments issued restrictive 



24 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

orders regarding its transportation on ships and rail- 
roads, and its storage in buildings. The English Par- 
liament went even so far as to declare that petroleum 
should be stored at a distance of at least seventy-five 
feet from all neighboring houses. Other governments 
and municipalities, principally in sea-ports, followed 
this example and issued more or less stringent orders, 
but most of them have been rescinded, for it has been 
proved that only crude petroleum is inflammable from 
the extremely volatile substance, the so-called naptha, 
which is mixed with it ; while the rectified oil only 
equals in combustibility alcohol and turpentine, and 
is even less dangerous than ether and sulphuric acid. 
The city authorities of Liverpool instituted trials, and 
it was found that ignited petroleum may be extin- 
guished with water and some of the patent fire annihi- 
lators. However, where large quantities of refined 
petroleum are stored, a careful ventilation is necessa- 
ry, in order to get rid of the gases evaporating from 
the oil. 



THE HISTORY OF GOAL OIL AND ITS DISCOVLRY. 

When we speak of the discovery of coal oil, in ref- 
erence to late events, it must not be mistaken for 
a modern invention. Tne extraordinary attention 
drawn upon it by the discovery of a more abundant 
supply, by artificial wells, since the August of 1859, 
has made its previous history of comparatively little 
Interest to one class of minds, but, on the other hand, 
has invested that previous history to philosophic eyes 
with all the charm of an archaelogical investigation. 
Bid not the builders of Babel use clay for bricks and 
slime for mortar ? It is evident from an examination 
of any of the ruins of Mesopotamia, that asphaltic mor- 
tar was the bed into which their alabaster wainscot 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 25 

pieces were set, and with which their vast terraces 
were compacted, and probably their roofs protected — 
the use of which so abundantly, only facilitated their 
destruction when the torch was applied. The pitch 
used was made by evaporating petroleum. That of 
Babylon we know was obtained from the sulphur, 
brine, and oil springs of Is, the products of which are 
still sold in the village of Hits. The story of the cat- 
astrophe of Sodom and Gomorrah, if not originated, 
was perpetuated by the vast accumulations of rock oil 
in the centre of the Dead Sea, as on the surface of a 
heated, simmering brine vat, where it is hardened by 
oxydation and drifted to the surrounding shores. A 
similar phenomenon — a lake of pure petroleum elicit- 
ed the amazement of the Spaniards who discovered 
Trinidad. 



THE GREEK FIRE A COMPOUND OF PETROLEUM. 

Oil springs, in fact, have been known and esteemed, 
and even worshipped, in every age and many coun- 
tries. Herodotus describes a bitumen spring in Za- 
cynthus, Zante, one of the Ionian Islands ; and proba- 
bly this spring sufficed the Egyptian nation for their 
incessant religious use of petroleum for mummies, the 
embalmment of which is amusingly described in Hunt's 
Merchants* Magazine for 1862. The " Greek fire" of 
more modern times was probably compounded of pe- 
troleum from the Zantean springs. Dioscyrides tells 
us that rock oil was collected in Sicily and burned in 
the lamps of Agrigentum. The classic home of naph- 
tha is Baku, a high peninsula on the western shore of 
the Caspian Sea, containing thirty-five villages and 
twenty thousand souls, rocky and sterile, without an 
attractive spot, without a stream, without one drop of 
2 



26 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

sweet water except what falls directly from the clouds, 
and without a tree. But coal gas rises everywhere 
from a soil saturated with naphtha, and numerous vol- 
canoes in action discharge volumes of mud. From the 
time of Zoroaster the naphtha of Baku has been sent 
all over Asia for the service of the sacred fire of the 
Parsees. The liquid streams spontaneously through 
the surface, and rises wherever a hole is bored. But 
especially at Balegan, six miles from the capital vil- 
lage, the sides of the mountain stream with black oils, 
which collects in reservoirs constructed in an unknown 
ancient time, while not far off a spring of white oil 
gushes from the foot. 

A LAND OF FIRE. 

Upon their festival occasions the people pour tuns 
of this oil over the surface of the water in a bay of the 
Caspian, and then set, as it were, earth, sea and sky 
in a blaze of light. Sometimes far grander exhibitions 
take place naturally. In 1817 a column of flame, six 
hundred yards in diameter, broke out near Balegan, 
and roared with boiling brine and ejaculated rocks for 
eighteen days together, until it raised a mound nine 
hundred feet in height. Of course, the population use 
the oil for light and fuel, and coat their roofs with it. 
A clay pipe or hollow reed steeped in lime water, set 
upright in the floor of a dwelling, serves as a natural 
and sufficient gas pipe. The Ghebers bottle it for 
■foreign use : the Atecshjahns fire with it their lime 
kilns and burn their dead. No wonder the religious 
sentiment of oriental mystics was entranced by such a 
land of fire as Baku, where in the fissures of the white 
and sulphurous soil the naphtha vapors flicker into 
flame ; where a boiling lake is covered with a flame 
devoid of sensible heat ; where after the warm show- 
ers of autumn the surrounding country seems on fire ; 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 27 

flames in enormous volumes rolling .along the mount- 
ains with incredible velocity, or standing still expect- 
ant ; where the October and November moons light 
up with an azure tint the entire west, and the Soghda- 
ku, Mount Paradise, the eastern buttress of the Cau- 
casus, covers its upper half with a glowing robe ; while 
if the night be moonless, innumerable jets of flame, is- 
olated or in crowds, cover all the plains, leaving the 
mountains in obscurity. The Gheber and the chemist 
here may worship side by side. All the phenomena of 
distillation and combustion, under varying barometic 
and thermometic conditions of the atmosphere, may 
be studied ; for none of this general fire burns unless 
when captured and applied to human uses in the lamp 
or stove or kiln. In the midst of this devouring ele- 
ment — through this world in flames — men live and 
love unharmed, tend sheep, plant onions, sleep, are 
born and die, as in more prosaic regions. The reeds 
and grass are in no wise affected by the flowing oil or 
by the burning gas. In fact, Rottiers, the traveler, 
thought the whole phenomenon electric, when he no- 
ticed that the vacuum in his thermemeter tube seemed 
to be especially full of flame, and that the east wind 
put to quiet the whole exhibition ; with which fact we 
may compare the curious discoveries of Moffat with 
his phosphorus thermometer, published in Silliman's 
Journal, Dscember, 1862, p. 437, as bearing on his 
theory of two normal opposite air currents. From an 
equally remote era the Burman empire and northern 
Hindostan have received annual supplies of rock oil 
from the wells of the Himalayan valley of the Irra- 
waddy, through Rangoon ; and it has always been a 
favorite drug in the Indian pharmacopia. 



28 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM, 



COAL OIL IN EUROPE, 

In Italy, the oil wells of Parma and Modena date 
back nearly two centuries, the year 1640 being that 
assigned to their discovery. The springs of Ammiano 
have long lighted the streets of Genoa. 

In France, oil springs have been known from time 
immemorial at Clermont and Gabian ; and in Canton 
Neufchatel ; and in Bavaria, Germany. 

In the English coal mines, of course, the coal-oil 
gas — the dreadful firedamp — was always a well known 
demon to the mining population ; but in 1659 Shirley, 
perhaps first, describes it to the reading public as an 
illuminating gas. In 1733 Sir James Lowther laid 
pipes along the mines and burned the gases at the sur- 
face of the earth. But the lighting of London streets 
and houses with gas came not till 1842. Twenty years 
have elapsed, and there are in Great Britain and Ire- 
land 1015 gasworks, with a capital of ninety millions 
of dollars, charging an average of one dollar and eigh- 
ty cents per thousand cubic feet to small consumers, 
and deducting from five to thirty per cent, for heavy 
consumption. Some of these companies pay twelve 
twelve per cent, dividends, and many of them ten per 
cent. The average capital of British gas works is said 
to be nearly twenty per cent, less than that of Ameri- 
can companies. 



PETROLEUM IN AMERICA. 

In America the history of coal oil commences with 
the use the white settlers found the Indians made of it 
for medicine, for paint, and for certain religions cere- 
monies. The settlers adopted its medicinal use alone 
and retained for more than one affluent of the Allegha- 
ny river the Indian name of Oil creek. The oil was 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 31 

minerals, required a manufacture, previous to tho dis- 
covery of the well oil, which consisted raidicall y in a 
coking process, during which the volatile ingredients 
distilled over. In 1832 Blum and Moneuse patented, 
and Lawrent and Selligue began to investigate, the 
coal oil gas manufacture. 

James Young, of Glasgow, in 1847, introduced the 
distillation process into England, and applied it to bog- 
head cannel from which he obtained, in 1854, an an- 
nual yield of oil equal to 8,000 gallons, selling for 
£100,000, most of which was profit. In 1854 the 
Kerosene Oil Works, on Long Island, introduced the 
distilling process into America, and in 1856 the Breck- 
enridge Oil Works, at Cloverport, Kentucky, distiled 
from cannel coal found there. By the close of 1860 
there were 25 factories in Ohio ; 6 in Kentucky ; 8 or 
10 in Virginia ; 10 in Pennsylvania ; 1 in St. Louis ; 
5 near New York city ; 1 at Hartford ; 4 near Boston ; 
1 at Bedford, and one in Portland, each averaging per- 
haps, 300 gallons of light oils per day ; the boghead 
cannel yielding 75 refined from 130 gallons of crude 
oil per ton, and the American canuels 60 from 117. 
The Albert coal yields, however 75 from 110. Now 
that the natural crude oil issues from the earth in such 
abundance, the first distilling process is abandoned, 
and these factories are occupied in refining only. 



REFINING PETROLEUM, 

The refining process requires stills holding, say, 
1,500 gallons of crude oil, made of boilerplate, with 
cast-iron bottoms two inches thick, on which the coke 
crust is deposited eight or ten inches deep, and is 
used as fuel after being removed. The heat continues 
twenty-four hours, and rises gradually to 800^ Fahren- 
heit. A steady flow of oil proceeds from the end of 



32 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

the worm, the condensation of paraffine in which, to- 
wards the end of the process, is carefully prevented,; 
Of the whole oil 88 or 90 per cent, comes over, and is 
then further purified with 5 to 6 per cent, of sulphuric 
acid in " agitators. " Three thousand gallons of oil 
are kept stirred for a while, and then left to settle, the 
gaits being tapped at the bottom. Agitated again with 
water, and again tapped from below, the oil is agitated 
a third time with strong alkali, washed again, and then 
transferred to the second set of stills like the first. 
Thus is produced, first the limid merchantable illumin- 
ating oils below 0.820, constituting from SO to even 
90 per cent, of the whole ; then follow heavier oils sold 
to the machine shops and railroads, or re-distilled into 
light oils and paraffine ; finally comes over the dark- 
colored paraffine oils, which, when left to stand cold 
in vats exposed to air, deposit paraffine in silvery scales 
to be itself pressed and purified with acid, hot water, 
and alkali. The illuminating oils are deprived of odor 
by standing for some days in shallow vats over alka- 
line solutions. Light destroys also the color, but yel- 
lowish oil at 60 cents is worth more for lamp use than 
colorless oil at 75. 



Are the oil wells giving out? 

"Whether the natural supply of rock oil will be di 
minished in coming time is a 4 question of moment to 
the speculator, and of interest to the economist and 
geologist. The force with which new borings often 
permit the deep-set reservoirs of oil and gas to evacu- 
ate themselves, would seem itself to state the physical 
impossibility of its continuance ; and experience has 
shown that all the older wells slowly diminished their 
supply. Hall states, in describing the old Freedom 
spring, in Cattaraugus county, New York, that a well 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 33 

was dug fourteen feet deep, eighteen feet distant 
which afforded at first a large supply of oil, but soon 
the oil and the new springs died away together. Few 
perhaps none, of the old salt wells of the Sandy, the 
Kanawha, the Monongahela, Gonemaugh, Alleghany, 
Beaver, and Muskingum valleys have been retained 
in full working condition, except by being deepened 
from time of time. The boring being carried further 
down every few years, new supplies of brime and oil 
and gas have been the consequence. The fiercest 
blowing and spouting wells of the last two years have 
become comparatively quiet. There is every geologi- 
cal reason for believing that the number and age of 
neighboring wells are the two elements of the calcu- 
lation to determine their capacity. 

When a comparison with other regions of the world 
is instituted, the same conclusion is arrived at. The 
five hundred and twenty springs of the Yananghoung, 
en the Irrawaddy, yield now only one hundred and 
twenty thousand gallons of petroleum per annum. 
Cases of sudden exhaustion also have occurred, when 
wells, beginning to blew off gas, have, in a few days, 
become quite dead in all respects. It is also asserted 
that, in every case of conflagration, the burning well 
has ceased its yield of oil, as if internally injured, by 
the cracking of the walls or by the loss of gass. On 
the other hand, old wells, exhausted by long practice 
and abandoned, have become refreshed by rest and 
profitable. 

FALLACIOUS THEORIES. 

Although the existence of earth-oil was known prior 
to Drake's operations, this knowledge of its existence 
did not amount to anything, for it was believed by 



34 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

peoplr generally, that it did not exist in any very 
large quantity ; and when the excitement did increase, 
and hundreds of adventurers commenced the work of 
prospecting, one great objection was urged against the 
business, and that was, that rock oil did not exist but 
in very limited quantities. Not only was this urged 
by the masses, but geologists ventured to support the 
same fallacious theory, and had not the pioneers been 
governed by a self-reliant judgment, they might have 
abandoned the work. The result of the determination 
to know by actual demonstration, proved conclusively 
that it did not exist in large quantities, and instead of 
heing a failure or a mere dream, the contrary was the 
case, and a temporary reverse was inflicted upon the 
oil fortune seekers by an overwhelming quantity of it 
Some were erroneously affected by this plethoric 
yield of grease, and as unwisely as those who did not 
go in, because of a belief in its non-existence, gave up 
the speculation because there was too much. 

OIL WELLS ON FIRE. 

More than once, in spite of all precaution, a spout- 
ing well has taken fire, and roared and burned like a 
volcano. Then pump works, engine houses, stores and 
boats, the soil, the stream, and the river into which it 
pours its flame, spread their common conflagration 
over day and night. In the autumn of 1861 a well 
about three miles up Oil creek was lit by a cigar, 
while thirty or forty people were standing around it, 
of whom fifteen were killed instantly by the explosion 
and thirteen severely injured. A column of fire, with 
its head rising and falling from thirty to fifty feet, 
continued to burn. 

The Little & Merrick well was one hundred and fifty 
feet deep at first, but in the spring of 1861 was deepen- 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 39 

or briefly to describe, will be confined to a section of 
country known as the "oil belts " of Ohio and West- 
ern Virginia, which are at the present time so greatly 
attractive to capitalists, and so much engaging the 
attention of the scientific, and those devoted to explor- 
ing the hidden treasures of nature, as well as business 
men and busy speculators also, of that country and of 
distant cities and States ; our city of " Brotherly Love" 
contributing her quota to make up the number. With- 
in the last fortnight no less than forty Philadelphians 
have registered their names as among the " distinguish- 
ed arrivals " at the two hotels — Swann's and Spencer's 
— at Parksburgh on the Ohio river, in West Vir- 
ginia. This town and Marietta, in the State of Ohio, 
are the principal places of rendezvous for the so call- 
ed " oil men "—-dealers in and purchasers of properties 
supposed to contain the precious greasy liquid. In 
addition to the arrivals hailing from Philadelphia, there 
have been registered in the same period of time gen- 
tlemen from Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washing- 
ton City, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Oil City, also 
from Maine and California. Tho hotels are nightly 
thronged and overflowing with guests. Your humble 
servant, with three gentlemen from Philadelphia, on 
our arrival, one night last week, at Parkersburgh, 
could not be accommodated with beds. The hotels 
are full and every cot occupied — the steamboats on 
the wharf were in the same fix, berths, all of them en- 
gaged, and hence we had to resort to the parlor floor of 
the hotel as the next best chance. Stretched out full 
length on the carpet, with my overcoat for a pillow, I 
thus, like many ethers in the same building " with oil 
on the brain," I laid me down to rest, trusting that the 
coming morrow would bring with it some " ile strike" 
lucky venture by which I could make a fortune. Be- 
fore the dawn of the morning a Cengressman and a 
Squire, both fevered with the oil excitement with 



40 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

lamp in hand, well trimmed with oil "brightly burning, 
sought for and found me stowed away in one corner of 
the room, and aroused me from a sound sleep, each 
requesting that I should accompany him, in different 
directions, to examine their oil territories. I felt de- 
sirous to serve them both, but being not omnipresent, 
I could not be in two places at the same time, I 
therefore proposed that I should take breakfast while 
they compromised the difficulty. But I digress. 
Seriously, I entertain the belief, with numbers of 
others who have visited and examined that part of the 
country, that Western Virginia is rapidly improving — 
that there has always been heretofore a lack of enter- 
prise, a want of enterprising men to develop and fos- 
ter the great natural resources within her boundary, 
to make them become useful and profitable to the cit- 
izens of that Commonwealth, now, as it were, compar- 
atively worthless to any one. This is true, lamentably 
true ; but methinks apathy is dying out, the country 
is beiug aroused from its long slumbers, and that 
beneficial changes are constantly occuring now, espe- 
cially along and contiguous to the Ohio frontier of the 
State — slowly but surely creeping up to her Alle- 
ghany mountain boundary, and that, before long, all 
parts within her limits will reap the advantages which 
follow a change from indolence to industry, from 
carelessness and shiftlessness to enterprise and pros- 
perity, stepping-stones to happiness and wealth. Her 
geological position — her mineral contents — her soil 
rich in agricultural advantages, and covered with an 
immense growth of huge and valuable timber — her 
navigable waters and healthful climate, are remarkable, 
and combine everything that is desirable to make her 
a noble State. 

Eastern capitalists have recently made extensive 
purchases in the oil territories in West Virginia, 
some of them amounting to hundreds of thousands of 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 41 

dollars. The principal oil wells in " Horse Neck" 
and " Bull Creek," in " Pleasants" county, are now 
owned in Philadelphia and New York. Philadelphians 
own considerable territory near Petroleum or Goose 
Creek and tributaries in " Ritchie" and also on 
Hughe's River. The Rathbone Estate, at Burning 
Springs in " Wirt" has been purchased by New 
Yorkers, and the " Eternal Centre Well" at the same 
place — otherwise called the " hub of the universe, " 
which once flowed over with oil — with other territory 
on the tributaries of the Little Kanawha has changed 
hands and is now the property of Philadelphians. 
Many undeveloped properties in that section of coun- 
try have lately been bought. I trust all of them will 
be attended with satisfactory results to the purchasers 
and to those who may hereafter become interested 
therein. In my next I shall describe the geological 
characteristics of the oil belts and some information 
in regard to the depths and productions of the oil 
wells. 
Philadelphia, October, 1864. 

THE OIL WELLS OF OHIO AND WEST VIRGINIA; 

We extract the following from the Marietta Regis 
ter : 

Oil, Oil Leases, and Oil Wells form the engrossing 
topic of the day ; not a train or boat arrives, without 
bringing several persons who are desirous of investing 
in this lucrative commodity. At the National House, 
in Marietta, the headquarters for all persons engaged 
in the business — it is almost impossible to hear any- 
thing discussed but oil. Hogs have given their last 
oleaginous grunt, and those who have " gone down to 
the saa in great ships" in quest of whales, will, upon 
their return, find their business " up a spout." Several 



42 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

of the wells are blowing. Tack's, on Campbell's Run, 
threw, a few days since, a perpendicular stream of oil 
and water a distance of eight feet, through tubing two 
and a quarter inches in diameter, and all the sur- 
rounding country has increased fifty per cent, in value. 
The Coney and Grilfillan Well produces from 75 to 100 
barrels per day. The Prime Well from 10 to 12 bar- 
rels. The Needier Well, within one hundred yards 
of Tack's, is nearly four hundred feet deep, with ex- 
cellent indications. All these bases are on Horse 
Neck, Wood County, West Va., eight or ten miles 
from Marietta. On Cow Run, in this county*, the Ber- 
gen Oil Company are sinking several wells. Their 
first, 190 feet deep, produces ten barrels daily, with a 
specific gravity of 41 ; and their third, five barrels, 
specific gravity 40. The Newton Well, now owned 
by this company, has produced 17,000 barrels, and is 
still producing. Many other parties are boring, anc| 
most of them have succeeded in striking the oleagin- 
ous fluid. The Dutton Well, on Duck Creek, has 
produced 19,000 barrels, and is still yielding finely. 
Many wells on Paw-Paw are giving splendid yields. 
Long Morse, Fifteen, Eight Mile Runs, together with 
Duck and Little Muskingum, on this side of the Ohio, 
and Bull Creek, Calf Creek, Cow Creek, and Horse 
Neck, on the other, all promise splendidly. The ave- 
rage specific gravity of all the wells is about 42. The 
probabilities are, that this will undoubtedly become a 
business, one of the best paying in the country ; and 
without much question, oil leases and oil stocks will 
"be placed on the " Stock Board." 

The Oil and Mining Business, in this neighborhood 
bids fair to become very lerge. Quite a number of 
companies, of heavy capital, as well as individuals, 
are now operating, and using a great deal of activity 
and energy in developing the petroleum and mineral 
resources of Washington county, and the adjacent 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 43 

territory of West Virginia. The prospects are flat- 
tering, and men of enterprise are largely investing 
their capital in this region. Real estate is rapidly 
rising in value, and the city of Marietta is receiving 
wealth and population — apparently substantial — in a 
degree that is pleasing to all its people. Men of value, 
in all respects, have recently come among us, at- 
tracted by resources that have been hidden in the 
earth, and which they are now bringing to light. 

BULL CREEK OIL WELLS OF WEST VIRGINIA. 

A famous region this. Twenty-four wells have 
been bored in this oil district. The big well of the 
vicinity is the " Gilfilan Well" which has yielded from 
60 to 75 barrels per day for the last five months, as 
reported. About 24 wells have been bored from Bull 
Creek to French Creek and some 60 or 70 more are 
in process of boring. Pleasants, Wood, Wirt and 
Ritchie counties are rich in Petroleum deposits and 
at this time are commanding the attention of explorers 
to an unusual degree. On Horse Neck a few weeks 
since a well was struck that yielded 800 barrels of oil 
in a day. This, of course, will not be its average, 
although the well may give extraordinary yields. 
Tack & Brother, of Philadelphia, are having very sat- 
isfactory success on Rawson's Run. Their new well 
yielding as above is 200 feet deep. This firm has 
another well 380 feet deep yielding about 35 barrels 
daily. The reports from Duck Creek above Marietta 
are also very favorable to oil operators. A glance at 
the map will show the relative location of the Virginia 
and Ohio oil districts. What this phenomenon of sub- 
terranean oil in various parts of the country will upon 
further investigation, amount to, no one can tell with 
certainty. We trust the permanency o/ the yield will 
equal the hopes that are now stimulating enterprise 



44 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

in business circles. We have received a copy of the 
Kanawha Petroleum Company incorporated under the 
laws of the State of New York. The company has 
416 acres in different tracts lying not far from Petro- 
leum in Ritchie County, and very near the railroad 
leading from Parkersburgh to Grafton, The location of 
the lands of this company is auspicious for good results 
to the Stockholders, oil having been found as early as 
1861 on the edge of Goose Creek, within a few feet of 
the railroad. The lands are covered with valuable 
timber and underlaid with coal and other minerals. 
The oil pockets seem to lie at the depths of 150 or 
200 feet. 

The oil in this region is said to have sufficient body 
— 28 degrees Beaume — to answer lubricating pur- 
poses. Upon this point we ask for more information 
than we now have. We wish this and all other com- 
panies, engaged in the development of the oil deposits 
of the country, the realization of their seemingly well- 
founded anticipations. 

A TRIP THROUGH A PART OF THE OIL REGION. 

The route and mode of procedure for parties from 
New York to pursue are : — Take the lightning train 
leaving Jersey City about six P. M., having early in 
the day secured at the principal office, 240 Broadway, 
through ticket's to Titusville and sleeping sections. 
Tickets cost $12 25, sleeping accommodations extr 
Trains arrive at Salamanca at eleven A. M., next day. 
There change cars to the Atlantic and Great Western, 
arriving at Corry about two P. M. There change cars 
again to the Oil Creejc train for Titusville. On arriv- 
ing at this thriving and bustling, but rapidly growing 
little town, proceed to the McCray House, the best 
and most popular place of entertainment — having 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 45 

written to the proprietor a day before leaving Netf 
York to have beds for the night, and horses for the 
following day engaged, or it is probable that neither 
can be had. Although this town bids fair before long 
to be of considerable importance, yet here the travel- 
ler has his first introduction to the most execrable 
roads — the world might be challenged to match. In 
the words of an Irishman, we have a graphic descrip- 
tion of the thoroughfares : — " Sure, ain't the streets 
paved with mud, and the sidewalks flagged with dirty 
boords, full of holes.*' No man who cannot ride on 
horseback, and handle his nag well, should think of 
visiting this locality. Mud, mud, everlasting mud, 
everywhere, varied with rocks, stumps and holes of 
startling proportions. Does the visitor come to see 
some piece of land offered to him for sale, unless he 
has previously arranged for a conductor he will meet 
with trouble and disappointment in his research. Does 
he come to investigate the property and proceedings of 
some company in which he contemplates taking shares, 
he will be surrounded with similar difficulties. Let 
all plans be arranged before leaving the city. Does 
he come to prospect and purchase land, he has need 
of all the caution he can command, and must bear in 
jnind that nearly every eligible location is bought up, 
and that he lacks the essential knowledge of distin- 
guishing eligible territory from that which is, proba- 
bly, valueless. Still, there are prizes to be drawn ; 
and, by bold and energetic action, many will yet make 
large fortunes, while the majority who persevere can- 
not fail to do well. With regard to companies, there 
is no doubt, if they are founded on good fee simple 
estates, with responsible men at the helm, that they 
cannot fail to do well ; while those whose assets con- 
sist in shares of the products of wells which they do 
not control, with a tract of worthless land in some out 



46 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 



of the way region thrown in a blind, should by all 
means be shunned. 



VENNAGO COUNTY. 

Venango county is in the north-western part of 
Pennsylvania, and has an area of eight hundred and 
fifty square miles. The Alleghany river flows through 
the middle of the county. The French creek, called 
by the Indians Yenango creek { empties into the Alle- 
ghany river near Franklin. Venango county is also 
drained by Oil, Teonista, and Racoon creeks. The 
surface is broken ; the streams flow though narrow 
valleys, which are separated from the uplands by 
steep and rugged hills, The soil of the uplands is 
moderately fertile, and adapted to pasturage. Wheat, 
Indian corn, oats and grass are the staples. In 1850 
Venango county produced 98,189 bushels of wheat ; 
109,042 of corn ; 255,146 of oats ; 319,870 pounds of 
butter ; 14,678 of maple sugar, and 15,653 tons of 
hay. There were thirty-one saw-mills, nine flour and 
grist-mills, twelve iron furnaces, one iron forge, two 
woolen factories, one nail factory, three agricultural 
implement manufactories, and six tanneries. It con- 
tained nineteen churches, and two newspaper offices. 
Iron ore, coal, and limestone were the most valuable 
mineral product ; while the creek furnishes copious 
and permanent motive power. The Alleghany river 
■is navigable for steamboats, and a branch of the State 
canal extends from Franklin to Meadville. The 
county was organized in 1800, and named from Ve- 
nango creek. It had, in 1860, a population of 24,974 
whites and 60 colored. 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 47 



CRAWFORD COUNTY. 

Crawford county is in the north-western part of 
Pennsylvania, bordering ~on Ohio, and has an area of 
about nine hundred and seventy-five square miles. It 
is intersected by French creek, and also drained by 
Shenango, Oil, Cassawaga, and Conneout creeks. The 
surface is undulating ; the soil generally fertile ; a 
large portion of it is better adapted to grazing than to 
tillage. Indian corn, wheat, oats, hay, butter, and 
potatoes are the staples. Lumber is also exported. 
In 1860 this county produced 387,556 bushels of 
corn ; 142,414 of wheat ; 418,751 of oats ; 165,662 of 
potatoes, and 1,267,436 pounds of butter. There were 
one hundred and forty saw mills, fifteen flour and 
grist mills, three woolen factories, two iron foun- 
dries, two wool carding-mills, two distilleries, eleven 
cabinet ware manufactories, three agricultural imple- 
ment manufactories, and sixteen tanneries. It con- 
tained sixty-three churches, and five newspaper offices. 
The county contains iron ore and lime marl. It is in- 
tersected by the Beaver and Erie canal, and by the 
Great Western and Atlantic Railroad. The Franklin 
branch of the State canal also terminates in the 
county. It was organized in the year 1800, and 
named in honor of Colonel William Crawford, who was 
captured and murdered by the Indians at Sandusky, 
Ohio, in 1782. Crawford county had, in 1860, an 
aggregate population of 48,755, 48,573 of which were 
whites. 



MEADVILLE. 

Meadville is the capital of Crawford county, Penn- 
sylvania, and a flourishing place, pleasantly situated 
on French creek, 436 miles in a west-north-westerly 



48 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

direction from Harrisburg, and about 95 miles north 
from Pittsburg. It was the principal market for the 
populous and fertile county of Crawford, and had quite 
a large export trade with grain, lumber, etc. : but 
since the discovery of petroleum in Crawford and 
other neighboring counties, Meadville has more than 
doubled its former population, and is now on the high 
road to an importance entirely beyond the means of 
calculation. Among the public buildings are a hand- 
some court-house, a State arsenal, and an academy. 
The elegant building of Alleghany College, under the 
patronage of three conferences of the Methodist 
church, stands on an eminence half a mile from the 
centre of the town. It has ten churches — two Pres- 
byterian, a Baptist, Methodist, Unitarian, Episcopal, 
German Lutheran, two Roman Catholic, and one for 
colored people. There is also the Unitarian Theologi- 
cal School, founded by Harm Jam Huidekuper a fe- 
male seminary, a museum, two banks, several brokers, 
offices, several paper mills, an edge % -tool factory, etc 
Four newspapers are published here, and there are 
eight or nine hotels — the McHenry, National, Sher- 
wood, Hupps', the Eagle, Crawford, American, and 
Colt's ; while a new one, on an extensive scale, is in 
course of construction. Meadville was incorporated 
in 1823. For the transportation, wharfage, etc., of 
the daily increasing oil business, Meadville offers bet- 
ter advantages than almost any other place in the oil 
region ; while the Atlantic and Great Western Rail- 
road Company is constructing large and substantial 
buildings to meet the requirements of their immense 
traffic. 

FRANKLIN 

Franklin, the capital of Venango county, Pennsyl- 
anvia, is about twenty-seven miles from Meadville, 
two hundred and twelve miles from Harrisburg, and 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 49 

sixty-eight miles north from Pittsburg. It lays on 
the right branch of French creek, immediately above 
its entrance into the Alleghany river, and is the south- 
ern terminus of a branch canal, extending from the 
Alleghany river to Meadville. Small steamboats run 
between Franklin and Pittsburg. The town looks old, 
and furnishes but few signs of recent improvement, 
Franklin contains a court house, one or two acade- 
mies, two newspaper offices, and a barrel factory, 
which turns out two hundred and fifty barrels per day, 
connected with which is a patent tag factory. It has 
several bridges across the river and creek. Franklin 
not only looks an old town, but is in fact one, having 
been laid out in 1795, on the site of Fort Franklin. 
The derricks of oil wells strike the eye at every turn, 
and new strikes on the Alleghany river and French 
creek are of almost daily occurrence. It was in this 
town that the third oil was struck, by a blacksmith 
named Evans. The oil from the Evans well com- 
mands a higher price than from any other, being, like 
most of the wells sunk in French creek, valuable for 
lubricating purposes, having more gravity. Other 
wells are sunk near the Evans wells — viz.: two by 
Halingen, and two by Mann, both of Philadelphia, 
Simpson & West, of Philadelphia, with several others, 
producing more or less lubricating oil. An interest 
in a well on French creek recently sold in New York 
for $9,000. 

An incredible amount of business is transacted at 
the Register's office in this place, which is the county 
seat of Venango county, reaching one million dollars 
per day in transferring of leases alone. The work is 
four weeks behind on recording cases, although a large 
force of extra clerks is employed. It is a pity the 
town would not erect a more suitable structure for a 
court house, when so much and such important bus- 
3 



50 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

iness is obliged to be transacted within its walls 
The present court house is an old fashioned structure, 
with no fire proof vault in which to deposit the valua- 
ble records entrusted to the officials. It is advisable, 
nay, absolutely necessary, that a reform in this re- 
spect should be adopted. Parties in New York, Phil- 
adelphia, Pittsburgh, to say nothing of the resident in- 
habitants of the oil region, are interested in this 
improvement, and unless the advice we give be soon 
respected, a conflagration in the town may destroy 
many valuable documents, involving many millions of 
money. 

The activity among the oil operators of Franklin is 
not lessened by the approach of bad roads and winter. 
The demand for engines and the requisite materials 
for boring, is greater than at any other period of oil 
history. The feverish excitement of the early discov- 
erers has settled down to quiet, business like opera- 
tions, without any reduction of vigor or intensity of 
purpose. There is a great deal less talk and more 
work than in former years. The consequence will be 
less speculation and a greater development of property. 

The wells in this borough, of which about one dozen 
were producing more or less oil, but none in large 
quantities, have mostly been lying idle since the low 
prices of last summer. Many of these wells are now 
in operation, and at present prices yield a handsome 
profit. The Brough well, at the lower end of the bor- 
ough, has re-commenced pumping, and is now yielding 
"about six barrels. 

Operations along Sugar creek are being vigorously 
prosecuted, and with fair prospects of success. At 
Valley Furnace, now the property of the New York 
and Pennsylvania Oil Co., two wells are going down, 
and preparations are ready for another. In the vicinity 
of Cooperstown some nine wells are in different stages 
of progress. The work on French creek is also pro- 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 51 

gressing with satisfactory results so far ; and the same 
may be said of the wells along the river above and be- 
low town. The next few months will show a develop- 
ment of comparatively new territory to an extent not 
witnessed in former years. 

The increasing demand for all available oil territory 
bring with it a daily influx of strnagers to this town, 
from whence they radiate to all parts of the region. 



TITUSVILLE, 

Titus ville was originally a small, although thriving 
lumbering town and post-borough of Crawford county, 
Pennsylvania, on Oil creek, twenty-eight miles east 
from Mead ville. It is well supplied with water-power, 
and had always an active trade. It was about a mile 
and a half from here that oil was discovered, on Oil 
creek, by Colonel Drake. The excitement began in 
I860 — 61, and people came in individually and went to 
putting down wells, with more or less success, in 
some cases the first strike being the best. Since then 
the business has increased, and immense fortunes 
have been made. Among the millionaires may be 
enumerated the heirs of the late Captain A. B. Funk, 
Jonah Watson, Orange Notch, who have retired with 
great fortunes ; Wm. H. Abbott, Charles Hyde — all 
poor men orignally, except Mr. Abbott, who came 
here orginally worth some $40,000. Among the half 
millionaires may be mentioned J. W. Sherman, J. Gr. 
Hussey (living at Cleveland, but doing business here), 
Dr. Levi Halderman, F. W. Ames (burgess of the 
borough), and many others. The Dalzell brothers, 
formerly of Pittsburg, have a large interest here, and 
are esteemed very wealthy. 

The visitor is not long in discovering, on his arrival 
in Titusville, that he is in the very midst of the oil 



52 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM, 

region ; the bar rooms of the hotels are crowded with 
mud spattered, travel stained men, who talk oil ; there 
is a rattle of glasses among rough clad, keen eyed men 
who have struck oil ; there is a Babel of tongues amid 
the cloud of tobacco smoke from all sorts of men ; and 
the words one can distinguish are "forty barrels a 
day — flowing well — seven hundred feet— sixty thou- 
sand dollars — oil — our company — bought at a bargain 
— sold — oil — got a new engine — run dry — new der- 
ricks — sold out and made — bust up and left — thou- 
sand dollars a day — oil — dollars — refine — down the 
creek — oil — another vein — oil — between you and 

I — oil — do not say a word — drill — d d swindle — 

worth a million — oil — big thing " — and so on, till one's 
head almost swims with the greasy topic. 

A barrel factory in this place turns out four hun- 
dred barrels per day, at three dollars and twenty -five 
cents per barrel. Tbe Oil Creek Railroad is finished 
to this place from Corry, twenty-eight miles, and to 
the Shaffer farm, about seven miles down the creek, 
on its way to Oil City. The report that no railroad 
would be constructed below Titusville, through the 
heart of the oil district, on account of the danger of 
the gases taking fire from the sparks of locomotives, 
is believed to be a story set on foot by teamsters, who 
realize very largely by carrying oil from the wells to 
the railroad depots. The Oil Creek Railroad will be 
continued as fast as men can be obtained to build it. 

This borough, from an humble country village only 
a few years ago, numbers now a population of some 
six thousand. New and handsome brick edifices and 
private dwellings are going up on every side, and in- 
dicate a determination on the part of the citizens to 
make it a substantial and permanent place of business. 
There are two banks here (the Petroleum and one Na- 
tiocal), and room for three or four more. The place 
contains thirteen hotels, and there is a fine opening 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 53 

for a first class house. It has a large hall, called 
" Crittenden," which will hold seven or eight hun- 
dred. It has one weekly newspaper. Among the 
residents are a number of New Bedford gentlemen — 
among them the brother and a son of the late mayor 
of that city, the Hon. Isaac C. Taber. 

OIL CITY. 

Oil City is about seven miles from Franklin, on the 
Alleghany river, at the mouth of Oil creek, which 
rises in the north-western part of Pennsylvania. For 
about a mile above Oil City, on the right hand side 
of the stream, the bank rises in an abrupt bluff, at 
the foot of which a very substantial road has been con- 
structed on a stone foundation, over which teams are 
constantly passing, conveying oil to the river. The 
city itself is built at the base of a mountain, on the 
flats that run along the base of the high bluffs , and be- 
tween them and the creek and river. It has but one 
street, and the grading of it has just commenced, and 
all the rocks, boards, boxes and rubbish generally are 
thrown into the middle of it. 

The buildings on one side of the street all rest upon 
stilts or spiles, and occasionally one caves in, as the 
post office did the other evening. On the other side 
a man begins to build with a depth of first floor of 
twelve feet, the next twenty, the next thirty, accord- 
ing to the " perpendicularity " of the mountain. The 
population are all busy, like sensible people, attending 
to their own business and making money — -but they go 
to church and close their grogshops on Sunday. The 
town is all wealth and mud — the creek all scows and 
scowling boatmen. When first built it was supposed, 
that the oil would not last, consequently, every per- 
son built his house in the cheapest possible manner, 
so that when the oil did give out he could leave, and 



54 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

not be at niucli loss. The city has a temporary look 
Directly acrosss the river and over the creek, on Cot- 
tage Hill, a few fine cottages are going up, and they 
present a pleasant appearance in contrast with the 
wretched aspect of the " city " proper. Restaurants 
and saloons, par excellence, are greatly resorted to, and 
with the exception of the billiard rooms, there is no 
approach to a decent room, in regard to size, in town. 
The billiard room is quite a large and well-kept room, 
having four tables up, and room for three more. Oil 
City is the New York of the oil region. The whole 
region known as " up the creek," is tributary to the 
place. Steamboats from Pittsburg make regular 
trips to Oil City — when the water will allow of it. 
The many .thousand wants of the community " up the 
creek " are supplied from this point ; all the oil from 
Oil Creek comes here to be overhauled, and is re- 
shipped from here to the East; most of the companies 
having their offices here. Rooms are very scarce — in 
fact there is a fortune for any one who will build a 
large house here as a lodging-house. 

The amount of business done by the banks is really 
immense. Any day you can see men depositing from 
ten to fifty and one hundred thousand dollars — in fact 
ten thousand is a small deposit. The First National 
Bank has five or six clerks, and does more business 
than any two banks in Brooklyn. You meet here men 
from every quarter of the United States. The oil 
fever has spread over the land, and men flock to the 
Mecca of their hopes in incredible numbers, and pay 
fabulous prices for wells and territory, immense for- 
tunes being realized in a few weeks. The price of 
labor is very high, and laborers are very scarce. Ad- 
venturers, capitalists, broken down merchants, and 
laborers from every direction, are attracted here, and 
yet there is room for more. Oil-wells have become 
greater fortunes than gold mines, and consequently 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 55 

attracted the shrewdest, most plucky, and most ven- 
turesome business ialent of the country. 



CORRY CITY. 

Two or three years ago, this place, which has now 
a population of about four thousand, was not in exist- 
ence ; and even at this day the city bears the signs of 
its recent birth, the people not having taken time to 
remove from the front part of the place the stumps 
which they are obliged to dig out in order to clear a 
space for building. Three railroads centre here — the 
Philadelphia and Erie, Atlantic and Great Western, 
and the Oil Creek road. So fast have the people been 
to accumulate wealth, that as yet no churches have 
been completed. But there is a Catholic church, also 
a Baptist and Methodist under way. Eligible build- 
ing lots command $300 to $800. Five years ago the 
whole site of the town might have been bought for the 
lower sum or less. 

Mr. Bennett, the burgess, came here three years 
ago, and paid $2 to $2 50 per acre for land that now 
commands $700 to $800 per acre. Samuel Downer, of 
Boston, owns the extensive oil factory located in 
Corry, and rents it to the company that now carries it 
on. It is valued at $500,000. The works cost 
$175,000. They employ 175 men, and pay $1 75 to 
$3 00 per day. Have refined 100 barrels per day for 
the last month, consuming 240 barrels crude. The 
products of distilling are : — 1, still gas ; 2, gasoline or 
naphtha ; 3, water separated ; 4, burning oil ; 5 lubri- 
cating oil, by chilling or pressing with ice, similar to 
the process in making linseed oil. Fifteen tons of 
ice are daily consumed in this process. The product 
of the oil region, from data obtained at this refinery 
has been about 5,000 barrels per day for the past year. 



56 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

There are not many residences Remarkable for arch- 
itectural beauty, it is true, and much of the city ap- 
pears to be somewhat of the mushroom order, but 
improvements are being made rapidly. The refinery 
is the largest brick building and the feature of the 
place. It is built and furnished in the most thorough 
manner, with all the modern appliances and improved 
machinery, cooper's shop, huge tanks for holding the 
oil, &c. One of the great oil tanks holds six thousand 
barrels of oil, and two others a thousand each* The 
product of the region, from data obtained at this 
refinery, has been about 5,000 barrels per day for the 
past year. 

The Atlantic and Great Western, Philadelphia and 
Erie and Oil creek railroads, centre here, and twenty 
or thirty trains a day pass and leave, making it quite 
a stirring place, especially in the vicinity of the rail- 
road station, where the vast train of oil barrels, the 
quantity of machinery, boilers, tubing, and pumping 
engines waiting transportation, and the rush, hurry 
and bustle, of an eager crowd, tells that we have 
reached the outer edge of the great whirlpool of treas- 
ure-seekers, mammon-followers and oil-borers. Like 
all new Yankee towns, Corry City has its newspaper, 
the Corry City News. 

One of the handsomest wooden buildings is a large 
billiard hall, and the hotel is quite a tolerable one, 
and really as respects its table, is much better than 
some of the fashionable houses of the Western States, 
is called " The Boston House," its owner, Samuel Dow- 
ner, Esq., of Boston, evidently believing that there is 
something in a good name. 

Building lots in Corry command from three to 
twelve hundred dollars. 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 57 



ROUSEVILLE. 

A very large amount of businness is now 
transacted in Rouseville in the transfer of 
leases, buying and selling lands, &c. The country 
around abounds in rich oil territory — the Hammond 
well, on the Steele farm, being the most productive — • 
a single well in the vicinity flowing two hundred and 
fifty barrels per day. The Trundy wells are also suc- 
cessfully worked. 

The next farm of importance is the Eynd farm, 
lying between the Steele farm and Blood farm. It 
comprises three hundred and eighty acres of oil terri- 
tory, on Oil Creek, at the mouth of Cherry Tree run, 
extending from the creek to Cherry run. Great ac- 
tivity is shown in the operations of this farm, there 
being some twenty-five paying wells working produc- 
ing about one hundred barrels per day, and thirty in 
the process of boring. It is owned by the Eynd Farm 
Oil Company and judiciously superintended by Colo- 
nel Hoffman Atkinson, formerly Adjutant on General 
Smith's staff, Army of the Cumberland. 

About a mile and a half above Rouseville is situated 
a little Island called Blood Island, on which several 
wells have been sunk, and which promises to be very 
productive territory. Below this point, the land 
seems better adapted to farming purposes than farther 
up the stream, sloping gradually to the water's edge, 
instead of rising in steep abrupt bluffs. 



ALLEGHANY RIVER OIL COUNTRY, ABOVE OIL CREEK. 

There are good wells on the Alleghany river, above 
Oil creek. The Wheeler well, and other wells all 
3* 



58 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

around to Walnut Bend, produce from ten to thirty 
barrels per day. Wells are being sunk on all the small 
ru ns — viz : Lamb's, Carey's, &c, — up to their heads, 
embracing the flats between Oil creek and Walnut 
Bend. 

Between Horse creek and Panther run, on the other 
side of the river, ten or twelve new wells are going 
down. One struck near Horse creek promises very 
good. 

Coming up to Walnut Bend proper, the Continen- 
tal Company, Philadelphia, have several good produc- 
ing wells, and good property on the river. The Bru- 
ner Company, Philadelphia, have a good region, strik- 
ing gas, which is a pretty sure indication of the pres- 
ence of oil. The Star Company have one or two wells. 

Pit Hole creek empties into the Alleghany. There 
are good wells about its mouth, and fair prospects up 
to Plummer road. All the territory above has been 
taken by companies, whose names are not well known. 
The creek runs up to Neilsburg, seventeen miles. 

From the mouth of Pit Hole creek up to a place 
called President — where there is a good hotel, new, 
clean and plastered — there are wells going down on 
Harper's Farm. Hemlock creek empties into the 
river at President. Then comes the two Tionestas, 
Lower and Upper. Oil is produced at the mouth of 
each, but none at any distance from their mouth. 

Next comes Hickory Creek, and thence we go to 
" Tideout," Warren county, where we find a sect 
called the " Economists," obtaining oil from shallow 
wells. Their settlement is on the river, and numbers 
about five hundred souls. They send their oil out by 
way of Irvin, on the Erie and Philadelphia road. 

This is the head of the oil region on the Alleghany. 
Next, going down below the mouth of Oil creek, look- 
ing after the branches, is the Big Sandy, the borders 
of which are all bought or leased for oil territory for a 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 59 

long distance from its mouth. Scrub creek is next in 
order ; but no oil of much account has thus far been 
found on either stream. Opposite from these streams 
is the East Sandy . but no oil has been discovered 
there. 

Two miles above Franklin Two Mile run empties 
into the Alleghany, and about two miles above its 
mouth a small amount of oil of very good quality has 
been discovered. All the territory has been leased, 
and is considered valuable, as it runs parallel with 
Oil creek after it gets up a short distance. 



ALLEGHANY RIVER OIL DISTRICT BELOW FRANKLIN. 

Messrs. Dale & Morrow struck a vein a short time ago 
on the Cochran Farm, two miles below Franklin, which 
yielded 240 barrels the first forty-eight hours pump- 
ing. It is considered good for 100 barrels a day. 
John Lee. of this place, has also obtained a flowing 
well on the Martin Farm, just above the Hoover, and 
nearly opposite the Cochran Farm, which flows over 
50 barrels daily. Besides this, a well has been struck 
on the island opposite the Hoover wells, which prom- 
ises to be a first class well. It has not been tubed 
yet. 

In addition to this, Mrs. Hubbs, who owns a lease on 
the Smith Farm, four miles below Franklin, now the 
property of the Excelsior Oil Company, and who had 
been pumping but four barrels a day at the depth of 
408 feet, sunk his well to the depth of 424 feet and 
struck a vein which produces 40 barrels in twenty- 
four hours. 

Also, we note the striking of two good wells on 
French Creek, one and a half miles from this place. 
All the above strikes have been made within a week, 
and there are good prospects of a number more in a 



60 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

short time. A well has been opened on the Brown 
Farm, on Sugar Creek, near its junction with French 
Creek, which is yielding twelve barrels per day. 
Several others are going down in that vicinity with 
very flattering prospects. The consequence is, that 
territory in that vicinity is going up in price. There 
is one fact which oil operators appear to overlook, and 
that is that there has been -many successes in pro- 
portion to the number of wells bored, on French Creek 
and its tributaries, as on Oil Creek and its branches. 

The well recently opened on the Hoover Island a 
few miles below Franklin, is now flowing about 100 
barrels a day and is increasing. 

Oil territory on the river below this place and on 
French Creek, is being taken up fast at high figures 
and in most cases will prove valuable investments to 
the purchaser. 

We are informed that Messrs. Morrow & Dale, have 
sold one half the working interest in their well re- 
cently opened on the Cochran Farm, for $50,000. 

The first well one comes to, on leaving Franklin, is 
one belonging to the " River Oil Company," which is 
now 750 feet deep, and still boring. A good show of 
oil was obtained at 700 feet. Just opposite, on the 
other side of the river, is the " Faulkner well," pump- 
ing three or four barrels of oil per day, 360 feet 
deep. Next are the Keystone wells. One is 460 
feet deep, and pumping some four barrels per day. 
Next is Cochran's and Williams' well, 430 feet, boring 
with an excellent show of oil. Just across the river 
are two wells with good shows, styled the " Spragle 
wells." Just below, on the same side of the river, is 
the " Lee well," depth 489 feet, and flowing sixty bar- 
rels per day, as near as it is possible to estimate. 
This company have three other wells. The next is 
the " Dale and Morrow well," above mentioned, situ- 
ated on the Cochran farm, about 440 feet deep, and 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 61 

pumping about forty barrels per day. Another well 
belonging to the same company is producing six to 
eight barrels per day, about 450 feet deep. The two 
wells were bored with one engine. 

Next is the " Shippen well," 460 feet deep, with 
good show. The next well is on Plummer and Hoov- 
er's Island, the first island below Franklin. It is 427 
feet deep, and flowing. When pumping, it will produce 
about fifty barrels per day. The next works belong 
to the " Pennsylvania Coal Oil Company," who have 
four wells in various stages of progress. On the op- 
posite side of the river is the " Reinhard wells," pro- 
ducing twenty barrels per day. Just adjoining is the 
" Hoover and Marshal" well, a good pumping well, 
and next to this are the works of the " Roberts' Oil 
and Mining Company." They have one well produc- 
ing eight barrels per day, and four wells nearly com- 
pleted. 

Next is the property of the " Greenville Oil Com- 
pany," which have one well producing some oil ; also 
the wells of General J. K. Moorehead, one of which is 
producing. Next is the " Cranberry well," being now 
546 feet deep. On the adjoining lands of the " Alle- 
ghany River Coal Oil Company," is the well of the 
" Smoky City Oil Company," which has been produc- 
ing for three years, pumping night and day, with no 
evidence of exhaustion. The " Hope Company " have 
a well on this land, but they have made arrangements 
to bore for the third sand rock, to test the theory, that 
if the third sandstone is reached, which is to be found 
at about a depth of a thousand to twelve hundred feet, 
immense flowing wells will be the result. The " Alle- 
ghany River Coal Oil Company " have two wells going 
down ; one of them is namedthe " Kendrick," and the 
other the " Weaver." 



62 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

FROM PETROLEUM CENTRE TO SHAFFER. 

The town of Petroleum Centre is situated on the 
west side of Oil Creek, and is so called from being 
about an equal distance from Oil City and Titusville. 
It is a collection of about thirty dwellings, a fine hotel, 
a dozen shops and stores, a telegraph office, post-office. 
&c. It has, moreover, the advantage of a bridge over 
Oil Creek, of which there are but three between Oil 
City and Titusville. The property adjacent on both 
sides of the Creek is known as the George W. Mc- 
Clintock farm, and adjoins the Egbert farm on the 
south, the McRea farm lying to the east of both on the 
hill. On the north is Bennehoof Run and the Boyd 
farm, and immediately adjacent to the town, what is 
known as Wild Cat Run, a circular ravine of about three- 
fourths of a mile in length, running around a " hog- 
back" of some fifty feet elevation. The farm contains 
255 acres, and is owned by the Central Petroleum Oil 
Company of New York. There has been no consider- 
able effort towards the development of this property 
until the past year, and there are now eighteen wells 
producing, yielding together about 550 barrels per 
day. Of these four are flowing and the others pump- 
ing ; ten are operated upon leases which pay half the 
product to the land interest, and eight are worked by 
the company. There were but thirteen leases on this 
property at the time of its purchase in March last, and 
the company have determined to execute no others, 
but rather to develop it themselves, and for this pur- 
pose are now preparing to sink a number of addition- 
al wells. The first well put down on this farm, com- 
menced flowing in August, 1861, at a depth of 472 
feet, yielding about 500 barrels per day, but ceased 
in December, after flowing about 50,000 barrels. An- 
other well opened in November, 1861, at a depth of 
440 feet, flowed about 100 barrels per day for a time, 
but then ceased. In January, 1862, it was deepened 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 63 

fifty feet, and afterwards flowed about forty barrels 
per day. It is now pumping ten barrels. The wells 
since put down average about 500 feet. The Coldwater 
wells (two) are yielding about forty barrels Wild Cat 
Run is owned chiefly by the Petroleum Centre Com- 
pany of Philadelphia. Quite a number of wells have 
been put down in the Run, but only four or five are 
producing oil, their yield being from ten to thirty bar- 
rels per day. The Sherman Oil Company of Phila- 
delphia own half the working interest in the Gillespie 
tract on this Run, on which is one well producing and 
another in process of boring. The same company also 
have the ]and interest in the Swamp Angel lease on 
the McClintock farm, now yielding fifty barrels per 
day. On the elevated ground which forms the McRea 
farm, several wells are in progress, the belief being 
that here as at various other points on the Creek, the 
oil veins pass over the hill eastwardly, whatever may 
be the occasion of the unproductiveness of like situa- 
tions on the western side of the stream. In Benne- 
hoof Run several wells are in progress, and three or 
four old wells, formerly yielding from ten to twelve 
barrels per day, are now idle. The Pennybaker well, 
in which the Mingo Oil Company of Philadelphia have 
a full fourth interest, is now yielding fifty barrels per 
day. Near the mouth of the Run a new well has just 
been put down to the depth of 600 feet and is now 
being tubed. The Boyd farm adjacent embraces 
about seventy-five acres, and is now owned chiefly by 
Messrs. Wood & Wright of New York, who are mak- 
ing active efforts to develop it. Fifteen wells were 
put down on the property in 1861 but of these only 
one was put in operation, yielding from ten to twenty 
barrels per day. Three wells put down during the 
summer are now producing, yielding together about 
thirty-five barrels per day, and four or five additional 
wells are now in progress. The Patterson well, deepen- 



64 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

ed during the summer to 500- feet is yielding about 
ten barrels. The Brownsville Company's wells, and 
also the old Snyder well are idle. 

The Mcllhenny or Funk farm, embraces about 180 
acres, and is owned one-third by the Mcllhenny Oil 
Company, one-third by the Dalzell Petroleum Com- 
pany, and one-third by other parties, each of the three 
interests being entitled to a sixth of all the oil pro- 
duced. It is a point of considerable interest, a small 
town, called Funkville, having sprung up on the up- 
per section of the lower farm, while the flat below is 
almost literally covered by derricks, engine houses 
and tanks. This property, then owned by Captain 
Funk, was largely productive in 1861 and 1862, sever- 
al of the first wells opened on it flowing from 200 to 
2500 barrels per day, at a depth of from 450 to 475 
feet, which is about the average of the wells since put 
down. The Crocker well, which was the first one put 
down, commenced flowing in January, 1861, and flow- 
ed 1000 barrels per day for some time, but afterwards 
rapidly fell off, and in 1862 ceased altogether. In 
September, 1861, the Empire well commenced flow- 
ing about 2500 barrels, and yielded 2000 barrels per 
day for most of the winter, falling off during the sum- 
mer to about 300 barrels, and ceasing in April, 1863, 
after flowing 80,000 barrels. The Buckeye well com- 
menced in September, 1861, flowing 800 barrels per 
day, fell off to 200 in 1862, and ceased after flowing 
43,000 bbls. The Fertig and Funk wells also opened in 
1861, flowed 200 bbls. each daily, and ceased in 1862, 
after yielding about 40,000 bbls. each. The Burtis, Ai- 
ken, Davis and other wells were at the same time flow- 
ing from 15 to 30 barrels per day. All these wells have 
since been idle, with the exception of the Empire, into 
which a patent air condenser was introduced in July 
last, and the well has since produced from thirty to 
sixty barrels per day, but is now again idle in conse- 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 65 

quence of some injury to the machinery. A like ap- 
paratus has been put into the Empire well, No 2, for- 
merly yielding 150 barrels per day, but for some 
months idle, and it is now yielding twenty barrels per 
day, A third has been introduced into the Buckeye 
well, owned by the Briggs Oil CompaDy, but as yet 
has had no beneficial result. The present product of 
the farm is about 320 barrels per day, being less than 
at any time during the last year. The Olmstead well, 
owned by the Olmstead Oil Company of Philadelphia, 
and formerly yielding 300 barrels per day, has been 
yielding nothing for the last two months. The com- 
pany have, however, an acre of land on which they are 
about putting down other wells. The Hibbard 
wells, Nos. 1 and 2, owned by the Hibbard Oil 
Company of Philadelphia, are also idle, one of the 
wells having exploded its gas tank about the first of 
December last, and not yet resumed work. The For- 
est City, yielding until recently forty-five barrels per 
day, is now doing nothing ; the Dinsmore, No. 6, is 
yielding 100 barrels ; the Hatch well, No. 3, fifty bar- 
rels ; the Fertig, ten ; the Harding, Mount Vernon, 
Long, Dean, Wilson and other wells, are yielding from 
ten to twenty barrels. There are about fifty abandon- 
ed wells on this property, including the lower and up- 
per farms, and a dozen or more new wells are in pro- 
gress. 

The Foster farm adjoins what is called the upper 
Mcllhenny, lying to the west of the creek, and here is 
situated the well known Sherman well, put in opera- 
tion in March, 1862, and for some months one of the 
largest flowing wells on the creek. It commenced 
with a flow of about 2000 barrels per day, but after a 
few months ran down to 600 barrels, and ceased flow- 
ing in February, 1864, since which time is has been 
pumped, yielding during the summer about 40 barrels 
per day, but stopping altogether early in October. An 



66 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

air condenser has now been put in the well, and it is 
again yielding from ten to fifteen barrels per day. 
The Foster, Dale, Gordon, and other wells, formerly 
yielding from 50 to 100 barrels per day, are now idle. 
Immediately above the Sherman well lies the proper- 
ty of the Irwin Oil Company of Philadelphia, on which 
is the Irwin well, formerly yielding 120 barrels per 
day, but which gave out during the last summer. The 
Irwin Company have from twenty-five to thirty acres 
of land, with a front upon the creek of about 500 feet, 
and running back diagonally over the hill to a small 
ravine beyond, in which they have a well in progress. 
In the same locality is the Pioneer Refinery, and still 
other wells have been projected by different parties 
on the ravine. The company have a new well near 
the creek front that has yielded some oil, and an old 
well a few rods back, near the Irwin, has been deep- 
ened to 500 feet, and is now about being put in opera- 
tion, new engines having just been procured both for 
this and the new well. Near the Irwin Company's 
property is the Porter well, which commenced flowing 
in May last, yielding during the summer from 70 to 
150 barrels per day, and now pumping about 20 bar- 
rels. A number of other wells on this farm are 
pumping from five to fifteen barrels per day, and 
several new wells are in progress. 

The Farel farm, on which is situated the Noble well, 
is immediately opposite on the east side of the creek, 
and is mostly bluff. There are here eight or ten wells, 
but only the Noble and the Milligan are producing, 
the former flowing about 200 barrels per day, and the 
latter 30 barrels. Three new wells put down during 
the summer have as yet produced but little oil. The 
Noble well commenced in May, 1863, and for the first 
three months flowed about 1700 barrels per day. Dur- 
ing last summer it was yielding about 600 barrels per 
day, but has latterly ran down to 100 a 200 barrels, 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 67 

the oil also being somewhat rily. The well is 470 
feet deep, and has yielded up to the present time 
about 410,000 barrels of oil, selling for over $2,500,- 
000. It is owned, together with some fifteen acres of 
land upon the bluff, by various companies and parties. 
The Noble and Delameter Petroleum Company own 
-3^- of the whole ; the Noble Well Oil Company one- 
sixteenth, and the balance of the interests are held in 
various proportions from one twenty-fourth to one 
ninety-second, by the Farel Oil Company, the Union 
Petroleum Company, Wood & Wright, V. M. Thomp- 
son, John Farel, Lamb, Churchill & Emmon, Jeffer- 
son, M. Wilcox, J. W. Hammond, J. H. Elmore, S. F 
Dewey, Everett & Russell, Charles Delameter & Co., 
Noble & Hale, and the Success Oil Company. The 
Caldwell well, on the bluff below the Noble, which 
with one acre of land was purchased by the Noble 
Company for $143,000, has not since been operated, 
its purchase having been a measure of protection 
merely. A new well recently put down by the com- 
pany in Bull Run, a short distance above the Noble 
well, is believed to have interfered with it, and has 
not for that cause been worked. 

There is no considerable production of oil at present 
above the Foster farm. Upon the several flats or 
farms are numerous abandoned wells, and at various 
points quite a number of new wells are in progress. 
On the Gregg farm, immediately above the Foster, 
the Prentiss well, which has been in operation four or 
five months, is yielding from 10 to 15 barrels daily. 
This well was sunk over a year ago, and for a time 
yielded, about 30 barrels. The Wilmington well 
formerly yielding 50 barrels, is again about starting 
The Sloan well (new) has been sunk to the depth of 
five hundred and sixty feet, with no indications of oil. 
The White well is yielding about thirty barrels. The 
first well sunk on this part of the creek, between the 



68 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

Buchanan farm and the old Drake well, a mile and a 
half below Titusville, was the old McCoy well on thfc 
upper point of the Gregg farm. It was sunk in 1859, 
and at a depth of one hundred and eighty-three feet 
yielded from ten to twenty-five barrels of oil per day 
from March until July, when it was burned out. It 
was afterwards run down to five hundred feet, but has 
yielded nothing at that depth. Immediately above 
this is a well, sunk last summer, that at six hundred 
feet has afforded no indication of the presence of oil. 
On Sanny farm above, and to the east of the creek, 
are a number of abandoned wells, some of which also 
were put down to the depth of six hundred feet with- 
out finding oil, or reaching the third sand-rock. Two 
of these are now being deepened. 

The Shaffer farm, ten miles from Oil City, and 
seven from Titusville, is the present terminus of the 
Oil Creek Railroad, and within the past six months 
has become a place of much importance. The farm 
lies on the west bank of the creek, opposite a sharp 
bluff, the flat being about 200 yards in width, and 
from the rear of which the hill rises gently to the 
westward. There had been a number of wells put 
down on this property three years ago, some being 
450 and others 500 to 550 feet in depth, but none ever 
producing much oil. On the upper point of the flat 
are two wells owned by Samuel Downer, one of which, 
the " Rangoon, " was opened in 1863, and is now pump- 
.ing 15 barrels ; the Railroad well, adjacent, commenced 
in April, 1864, yielding 45 barrels per day, but for the 
past two months has not been in operation. On the 
east side of the creek, Messrs. Brewer & Watson have 
a well yielding 30 barrels per day. The same par- 
ties have other wells adjacent, one of which, in 1863, 
yielded upwards of 1000 barrels per day for a con- 
sierable time, and another about 100 barrels per day, 
but none of these are now in operation. There are 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 69 

on this property several leases, and quite a number 
of wells are projected, particularly on the lower sec- 
tion cf the flat, but none are yet producing. Messrs. 
R. Wildy and A. C. Roberts have a well now being 
put in operation, that at 510 feet depth, affords the 
most encouraging indications. The great feature of 
the place, however, is the railroad depot, and the very 
thrifty town which has grown up within the past six 
months. Previous to August, 1864, the shipping point 
on the Oil Creek Railroad was at the Miller farm, a 
mile above. In July the track was completed to 
Shaffer, the road running along the edge of the hill, 
at the back of the flat, where commodious landings, 
depot buildings, turnouts, &c, have be^n constructed. 
The depot buildings occupy the western side of the 
main track, the landings in front forming an elongated 
semicircle of perhaps 1000 feet in length, around 
which there is a double track, lined on the creek side 
by a number of spacious wharehouses. 

The shipments of oil from this point have been 
large, averaging since August last, about 2000 barrels 
per day, and the business of the road other than this, 
has been immense, every train bringing down vast 
quantities of machinery, iron, tools, pipes, tubing, 
lumber, barrels, coal, &c, &c, so that the landings, 
capacious as they are, are kept constantly crowded. It 
is no unusual occurrence to see thirty or forty engines 
on those landings at a time, and dozens of car loads 
of tubing and other machinery awaiting transportation, 
down the Creek, while at Titusville and Corry the 
road is literally blocked with freight. In the mean- 
time the town of Shaffer has grown rapidly. In July 
last, when the railroad buildings were commenced, 
the place was marked by a single frame dwelling, and 
a small restaurant on the edge of the Creek near the 
Railroad and Rangoon wells. Now it can boast four 
excellent hotels, a dozen or more stores, two exten- 



70 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

sive livery stables, a post-office, some fifty dwellings, 
and an excellent school. The most commodious hotel 
in the place is the Person's House, capable of accom- 
modating one to two hundred guests. The others 
are the Shaffer House, Shaw's Hotel, and the James- 
town House ; and the tide of travel is such that all are 
constantly crowded. The buildings are all frame, and 
mostly of inexpensive construction. The cost of liv 
ing is high, taking into consideration the fare provi 
ded ; the charges at the hotels being from $2 50 to $3 
per day. Everything in the way of marketing has to 
be brought from Titusville, Meadville, and Salamanca. 
The livery stables are doing a large and nourishing 
business, each keeping from fifty to one hundred horses, 
for which there is a constant demand at from four to 
five dollars per day. The population of Shaffer is 
about 400, exclusive of strangers and the numerous 
persons employed about the. depot in various capaci- 
ties. 

The greater portion of the oil produced on the 
Creek, as far down as the Tarr farm, usually comes to 
Shaffer for shipment, the charges for hauling north- 
ward to Shaffer, or southward to Oil City, being gen- 
erally about $1 50 per barrel, but varying much ac- 
cording to the condition of the roads. A two-horse 
team will ordinarily haul six barrels, returning with a 
load of empty barrels, which are carried at a charge 
of twenty cents each. When, however, the Creek is 
navigable for boats, and on the occasion of pond-fresh- 
ets, the great bulk of the product, even as far up as 
the Foster and Farrel farms, is sent down the Creek 
for shipment. The boats are usually towed up the 
Creek, the charges for towing empty boats of the ca- 
pacity of 150 or 200 barrels ranging from $20 to $40, 
according to distance. When towing is practicable 
regular communication between Oil City and Shaffer 
is kept up by this means. Hundreds of travellers 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM, 71 

visiting Oil City take the railroad to Shaffer, and 
there embark in open boats, often without seats of any 
kind, for Oil City, or any intermediate points they 
may desire. The fare for such conveyance is modest, 
being only about fifty cents per mile, say $4 to Oil 
City. Much freight is also taken down the Creek by 
this means, when it is impossible to convey it by 
wagons in consequence of the condition of the roads. 
Such is the difficulty, at times, of moving heavy 
freight, that not unfrequently fifty and one hundred 
dollars have been paid for transporting an engine a 
single half mile. 

A large business in coal is growing up at Shaffer. 
Most of the coal used on the creek has heretofore 
been wagoned from the Cranberry coal banks, some 
seven miles southeast of Oil City. In the summer 
coal is supplied at the wells at from 25 to 40 cents 
per bushel ; but such was the condition of the roads 
during the months pf November and December last, 
that prices advanced to $1 30 and $1 50 per bushel; 
or $30 to $35 per ton, and operations at numerous wells 
were suspended for the want of coal. Coal of a 
much better quality is now found on the line of the 
Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, in the vicinity of 
Ridgway, and is being shipped to Shaffer, and thence 
on boats down the creek, at prices which yield a large 
profit. At some of the wells the custom is to burn the 
gas from the well for the purpose of driving the en- 
gine. A pipe is put down through the seed bag by 
tho side of the tubing, leading from thence into a 
hogshead half filled with water, where it undergoes 
purification, and is then conducted by another pipe to 
the furnace. It is now believed, however, that ^uch 
use of the gas causes more injury to the well by di- 
minishing its yield, than is saved in the cost of fuel, 
besides at times being attended with disastrous re- 
sults. Any material diminution in the supply of gas, 



72 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

even though but momentary, leads the flame directly 
into the tank, resulting in immediate explosion, and 
sometimes heavy loss from fire. It is only a few weeks 
since the Hibbard wells, and a considerable stock of 
oil, were imminently endangered by an occurrence of 
this character. 

The Oil Creek Railroad, which is now under the 
joint control of the Philadelphia and Erie and the 
New York and Brie Railroad Companies, is being 
rapidly extended down the creek, the grading for 
the road bed, which follows the hill to the west of 
the creek, being nearly completed as far down as 
the Mcllhenny farm. The completion of this road will 
add very greatly to the facilities of transportation, as 
well of oil as of machinery and fuel, and will open a 
new era on the creek. The present means of trans- 
port are of the most primitive character, and are not 
only costly but attended with many difficulties. 

In the fall and winter of 186.3, after the Oil Creek 
railroad had been opened to the Miller farm, a num- 
ber of gentlemen formed themselves into a company, 
for the purpose of pumping oil the whole distance of 
the creek, by means of iron pipes. They contracted 
for about ten miles of iron pipes, of about four inches 
diameter, most of which was delivered on the creek, 
and about three miles put down, extending from the 
Miller farm to a point on the Foster farm, opposite the 
Noble well ; but the enterprise could not be made to 
work successfully, and was abandoned, all the parties 
concerned in it losing largely. 

The pumping was done by a stationary engine, the 
oil being supplied from a tank capable of holding five 
hundred barrels ; but in consequence of leakages in 
the pipes, there was a large deficit in the deliveries at 
the upper end of the works, the loss in many cases, 
amounting to ten per cent., being very nearly, if not 
quite, the cost of hauling. Dealers were unwilling to 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 73 

lose, and the company unwilling to make up this lose 
amounting to double their charges, and in consequence 
the whole project went by the board, The pipes still 
line the creek at various points, bearing silent testimony 
to the disappointed hopes of the parties engaged in. 
the enterprise. 

OIL CREEK, ABOVE EOUSEVILLE. 

The connection between different wells, entering 
the same oil veins, which tends so largely to the inse 
curity of leased property as well as small land interests 
in the Oil Creek Valley, has nowhere been more stri- 
kingly illustrated than on the farm formerly owned by 
the Widow McClintock, and by her bequeathed to Mr. 
John Steele. It is immediately above and on the op- 
posite side of the creek from Rouseville, and contains 
about two hundred acres, of which nearly one half is 
bottom land, with a frontage on the creek of about half 
a mile. There are upon the farm upwards of twenty 
producing wells, yielding about two hundred and fifty 
barrels of oil per day, besides some forty abandoned 
wells, and ten or twelve new wells in proeess of boring. 
Some of the most productive wells on this property 
have been located upon the bank of the creek where 
the Van Slyke well, put down in 1861 to the depth 
of 640 feet, flowed from 1000 to 1200 barrels per 
day ; the Chirty 30 barrels, and the Eastman, Hayes 
& Merrick and other wells, from 20 to 50 barrels per 
day. Latterly, however, these wells, located in al- 
most a direct line* have produced no considerable 
amount of oil. The Van Slyke, which had produced 
an aggregate of 40,000 barrels, was in May last yield- 
ing about 50 barrels per day as a pumping well ; the 
Lloyd 20 barrels, and the Christy six or eight barrel^ 
the others being idle. About the middle of May the 
4 



74 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

" Hammond" well, which had been put down by cer- 
tain New York parties to a depth of 600 feet, directly 
between the Christy and Van Slyke, Lloyd and Christy 
produced but very little oil, the daily yield ranging 
from three to ten barrels. The Hammond continued 
to flow until about the 10th of June, when together 
with nearly a dozen other wells upon the flat, it was 
flooded by the drawing of the tubing of the Excelsior 
well on the John McClintock property, about 500 yards 
distant on the east side of the creek, and has since 
produced very little oil, except for a few weeks during 
the summer, when the Excelsior having been retubed, 
the Hammond yielded for a time, as a pumping well, 
about 150 barrels per day. Early in June, and but a 
few days before the Hammond was first flooded, the 
land interest in the well, including less than one-third 
of an acre, was purchased by the parties owning the 
working interest for $200,000. 

When these wells were first flooded, it was supposed 
to be the result of sinking a new well, a short dis- 
tance below, on the flat, by • Messrs. Vandegrift and 
Titus ; but careful observation soon demonstrated the 
connection existing between all these wells, and that 
the Excelsior well was the source of the supply of the 
water which all were pumping. It appeared, more- 
over, that the Excelsior had ceased yielding oil 
within a few hours after the Hammond commenced 
flowing, and further, that the pumping of the wells 
vpon the flat had daily a perceptible influence upon 
the water in the Excelsior, After much difficulty, the 
owners of the two wells came to an understanding 
during the summer, by which the Excelsior was re- 
tubed, and the water being thus shut off, the Ham- 
mond produced for a short time 150 barrels per day, 
bvt the other wells adjacent have never been restored. 
Subsequently the tubing was again withdrawn from 
the Excelsior, and the Hammond has since pumped 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 75 

nothing but water. In numerous other cases the con- 
nection between wells is proven with equal clearness, 
but the facts connected with the Hammond well raise 
another question of no little interest. The well was 
put down between two others already nearly exhaust- 
ed. Subsequent facts prove that it entered the same 
veins as these wells, and being no deeper than these, 
its large production, while the others were yielding 
little, can only be accounted for by the supposition 
that it penetrated a vertical vein below the range of 
the horizontal veins supplying the adjacent wells. 
Such being the case, it would be liable to be flooded 
with the others, by the introduction of water into the 
horizontal veins, which being again shut off, as was 
shown by the retubing of the Excelsior, the well would 
resume its flow of oil wholly independent of the wells 
adjacent. In any case, the question is one of much 
interest, and it is not doubted by the owners of this 
well that it will yet become a valuable property, when- 
ever they shall be able to bring their difficulties with 
the owners of the Excelsior to a proper adjustment. 
There are two new wells upon the Steele property, 
producing about 40 barrels each ; the two Painter 
wells are yielding together about 50 barrels ; the Mc# 
Clintock 10 barrels ; the Morrison & Bell 20 barrels ; 
and several others from 5 to 15 barrels. 



PETROLEUM IN OTHER PLACES. 

The Morgan Herald reports that a well, offering a good yield 
of oil, has been obtained by boring two hundred feet, within 
two miles of McConnellsville, on the Kirkpatrick farm. 



76 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

New Strikes on Sandy Creek. — We learn, says the Oil City 
Monitor ; that the Keystone Oil Company, Capt. Pasely, Super 
intendent, struck a splendid well on Wednesday of this week 
The well is not yet tubed, but it is variously estimated at from 
forty to sixty barrels. This well is about sixty rods below the 
Slate Furnace. The well at the mouth of the creek, struck 
about ten days ago, continues its yield as heretofore. This, we 
think, demonstrates the position long since /maintained, that 
East Sandy Creek would, when sufficiently developed, prove to 
be first class oil territory. Months before the great oil excite- 
ment broke out, we greased our boots with the oil from the 
natural oil springs at Hall's Run. nor years we have been in 
the habit of visiting occasionally this spot with curiosity seekers 
to see the oil spout up through the water from the crevices in 
the rock. As we have before stated, this spring, which yields 
its unfailing supply of oil, proves not only the prevalence of oil 
in large quantities, but also the open structure of the rock, a 
condition quite essential to permanent wells. We expect soon 
to hear of more than one Cherry Run and Oil Creek in our coun- 
ty, and East Sandy and its tributaries bid fair to come in for a 

large share of consideration.] 
.0 

The Ritchie Well, — The following item from the Oil City Moni- 
tor will be read with interest by the stockholders in the Ritchie 
Oil Company, recently organized. Our cotemporary says: 
" The Williams well, on the Clapp farm, is pumping 150 bar- 
rels. It was sold to Claney, Tyler & Co., and since put into a 
stock company, known as the Ritchie Oil Company, formed on a 
basis of 160,000 shares at $1, and on this capital the proceeds 
of the working interest of the well being from seventy to seven- 
ty-five barrels of oil per day, and selling a3 it now is, at from 
$11 to $11 50 per barrel at the well, it will pay from ten to 
fourteen per cent per month. There was an offer made recent- 
ly for the Ritchie interest of this well at^ $200,000, or test the 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 77 

well and pay $3,500 per barrel. "We consider it the best founda- 
tion for a company we have heard of for some time." 

Coal Oil in Jasper county, Ind. — There is some excitement in 
Jasper county on the coal oil question. Petroleum has been 
discovered in the ledge of rocks upon which the town of 
Rensselaer is built, and the same characteristics pervade the 
entire line of the Iroquois rapids. Two companies have been 
formed, and headed by Mr. Brown, the State Geologist, and 
backed up by parties who have experience in the oil business of 
Pennsylvania. The indications of oil are undoubted and parties 
interested are sanguine of the best results. Land in Jasper 
which has hitherto been rather a drug in the market is looking 
up, and prices have been greatly stimulated. 

A Valuable Well, — An oil well near Zanesville, Ohio, is now 
yielding 160 barrels of oil a day and the oil sells at the well for 
$24 a barrel. 

Oil at Fishkill.—We have been shown two specimens of Fish- 
kill coal oil, gathered from springs. It has the scent of the real 
article, and perhaps shows where it may be found in large quan- 
tities. In the meantime the Fishkill Standard says a company 
has been formed with a capital stock of $600,000, all of which 
has been taken. The matter has been taken in hand by the 
most prominent, wealthy and enterprising men of that vicinity, 
and operations are to be immediately inaugurated for the get 
ting of oil. It adds that the indications are favorable, and num- 
bers of gentlemen, who were skeptical at first, have had all their 
doubts removed by a visit to the " oil regions," and have taken 
stock in the company just formed. 

Oil in C&lorado>—The Denver Daily News, of October 28 
speaking of the oil wells of Canon city, says— 



78 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

" Our people are, perhaps, not generally aware that Colorado 
can produce her own oil ; not only sufficient for home consump- 
tion, but a full supply for the neighboring territories. Good in- 
dications of coal or rock oil have been found near Canon city. 
These springs have been improved to some extent, but not suffi- 
ciently to yield any very considerable quantity of oil. The na- 
tural flow from the surface is about one barrel per day, and it is 
reasonable to suppose that the quantity can be indefinitely in- 
creased by judicious and extensive borings. We believe that in 
no other part of the United States are the surface indications as 
good as at the springs named. In the rich oil regions of Ohio 
and Pennsylvania we believe that surface indicatious are very 
rae. It is found by deep borings, and seldom, if ever, flows 
from natural springs. The fact that we have here a large oil 
spring would seem to indicate an unusual quantity of it beneath. 

Petroleum in Stark county, Ohio.— The " oil fever " is raging 
in Stark county. The " Canton Oil Company," composed of 
speculators from Pittsburgh, has purchased six hundred acres of 
territory at Canton and on Bull Creek, and is sinking wells up- 
on it. A rich flowing oil well is reported to have been struck 
a half a mile east of Waynesburgh, in the same county. 

Oil in Tulpehocken, Ohio. — We learn that the people of Tul- 
pehocken are excited at the report that oil had been discovered 
on the banks of Little Twin, in the vicinity of " big nose John 
Emriek's." It is said to be a very fine article of cod liver oil. 

The Clearfield county [Ohio] Republican says : "Our peo- 
ple are taking the infection. Politics, the war, drafts, con- 
scriptions, high taxes, and even our lumber business, all are in 
danger of being forgotten in the rage for petroleum/' but so far 
nary " smell" of "ile" has been struck. 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 79 



ue herald's special report on the oil region. 



I have just returned to this pleasant town from a 
hasty expedition into the Oil Creek region, and will 
give you a few views in regard to the country, its pop- 
ulation, &c. 

the early history of the discovery 

has not been fully understood, and a few remarks in 
addition to a former account may not be unaccepta- 
ble. A Gazetteer of Pennsylvania, published as early 
as 1803, refers to the existence of oil in the western 
and northern parts of Pennsylvania by relating the 
fact that a noted doctor was in the habit of riding 
over the mountains on horseback, taking his saddle 
bags filled with bottles ; then filling the bottles with 
the oil taken from the ground would return and sell it 
to the primitive settlements east of the Alleghanies, 
as a panacea for all the ills that afflict mankind. Al- 
though the existence of the oil was known more than 
a century ago, it was not until within the last twelve 
years that any effort was made to make it a staple pro- 
duct of the country, and send it to all parts of the 
world. Its development and its extensive use, not 
only in this country but in Europe, where, among 
other services, it is now used to light the streets of 
St. Petersburg, and in South America, where it furn- 
ishes light to illuminate the apartments of Brazilian 
princesses, and the more remote parts of the world, 
such as Asia and Africa, whither it is an article of ex 



80 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

tensive export from this country, may be looked upon 
with astonishment and incredulity by the casual ob- 
server ; but those who carefully examine all the facts 
connected with the subject can but wonder that it was 
so long allowed to remain undeveloped as an article of 
general use and commerce. 

INCIDENTS OF ITS EARLY DISCOVERY. 

In the spring of 1853 Mr. George H. Bissell, for- 
merly of New Orleans, upon his return North from 
that city, saw at the office of Professor D. Crosby, of 
Dartmouth College, N. H., a small bottle of petroleum 
given Dr. C. by his nephew, Dr. Brewer, of Titusville, 
Pa. Mr. Bissell became greatly interested in the pro- 
duct ; and about six months afterwards associated 
himself with a Mr. Eveleth in developing the article. 
These gentlemen proceeded to Titusville, and pur- 
chased, what was then considered the principal oil 
lands of Pennsylvania, from Messrs. Brewer, Watson, 
& Co., of Titusville, for $5,000. Messrs. E. & B. 
then organized a company, under the name of the 
" Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company,'* and proceeded to 
develop the lands by trenching them and raising the 
surface oil and water into vats. These primitive op- 
erations were conducted for about three years, only a 
limited amount of oil, however, being raised, and that 
used principally by liniment makers. In the spring of 
1855 Messrs. Eveleth & Bissell, at considerable ex- 
pense, employed Professor Silliman, of Yale College, 
to analyze the oil, and furnished him with all needful 
apparatus for his experiments. Professor S. was en- 
gaged about four months in his analysis, and in the fall 
of 1855 Messrs. E. & B. published Professor Silli- 
man's very full and elaborate report. This report ex- 
cited some attention in New Haven, and some gentle- 
men proposed to Messrs, E. & B. to re-organize in 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 81 

New Haven. This was done, Professor Silllman be- 
ing the first president of the company. The work of 
raising the oil by trenching was continued until 1858, 
when an arrangement was concluded by the company 
with some of its members to bore an artesian well on 
the land. A new. company was then formed, called 
the Seneca Oil Company, who obtained from the Penn- 
sylvania Rock Oil Company a lease of the land for 
forty-five years, on condition of giving the latter com- 
pany twelve cents per gallon for all oil produced. 
They employed a gentleman by the name of Drake — 
then a conductor on the New York and New Haven 
Railroad — to oversee operations on Oil creek, and 
furnished Mr. Drake with the necessary capital. Mr. 
D. commenced operations at once ; but was delayed by 
many obstacles, until, finally, on the 28th of August, 
1859, he " struck ile " at a depth of only sixty-nine 
feet from the surface. This well produced about four 
hundred gallons of oil per day, which, at that time, 
was regarded as a " big thing." The excitement soon 
spread, and from this simple commencement the 
petroleum business — now the second article of export 
from the United States, the production amounting since 
January to sixty millions of gallons — was ushered into 
existence. 

THE QUALITY AND GRAVITY OF THE OIL FOUND ON OIL 
CREEK, ALLEGHANY RIVER, FRENCH CREEK, ETC. 

It is interesting to those who are enlisted in the 
business of developing this remarkable article to 
know the gravity of the oil as found in different locali- 
ties, as upon that depends its value for particular pur- 
poses. We will state, therefore, that the oil found on 
Oil creek varies in gravity from forty to fifty degrees 
Beaume. It contains a large proportion of benzine. 
The oil of Alleghany river ranges from thirty-four to 



82 ALL ABOUT FETROLEUM. 

thirty-nine degrees and contains very little naphtha. 
Much of this oil if mixed with lard and other substan-* 
ces, makes a very good lubricator for coarse ma- 
chinery. It is, however, quite equal to the oil of Oil 
'jreek for illuminating purposes. The oil of French 
sreek ranges from thirty to thirty-one and a half de- 
grees, and is probably the finest lubricator known. It 
is used with great success on the most delicate ma- 
chinery. This oil sells readily for about twenty dol- 
lars per barjel at the wells, not inclusive of package, 
and the price has remained the same for the last year 
and a half. Active operations are going on upon 
French creek, and the territory is being rapidly de- 
veloped. 

STEAM TO OIL CITY. 

The roads from this point to Oil City being too bad 
for the carrying of freight, although the distance is 
but seven miles, a couple of snug little steamers, 
called the Petroleum No. 2 and Advance No. 2, have 
been placed on the river route, and are doing a lively 
business in the transporting of freight and passengers. 

OIL CITY. 

A subscription of fifty thousand to sixty thousand 
dollars has been started in Oil City for the purpose of 
building a new hotel there — a much needed improve- 
ment : and we are sure it will not be allowed to slum- 
ber by the oil nabobs who abound in that locality, and 
are celebrated for their public spirit. 

OIL* CITY AND ANECDOTES ITS NOTABLES. 

We come now to one of the most unique and inter- 
esting portions of the oil region. I find here a most 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 83 

extraordinary amount of mud everywhere ; but every 
body is in good humor. The early history of Oil City 
may not be uninteresting. In 1860 a number of en- 
terprising youths met at the Petroleum Hotel, then 
kept by one Golgin, and concluded to call the place 
Oil City. It had previously been known as Corn- 
planter village. The landlord of the Petroleum was 
an original, who had his own ideas about keeping a 
hotel. He used to say that " if the hotel was in good 
order he thought he could run her." Crapo, of New 
Bedford, was at this time at«Tideput, from which he 
removed to Rouseville, and thence to Oil City, where 
he is now running the Crapo House. The Sheriff and 
other hotels have since been started. The opinion 
that where there is always so much mud there is no 
use keeping a nice hotel is fallacious. If the oil citi- 
zens would only " mend their ways " there would be 
no difficulty in keeping a tidy hotel, for there is money 
enough laying around loose there to sustain a first 
class house. Money is no object to these people, un- 
less you come across a very close one. I occupied a 
double bed the other night in a room in which there 
were five or six others. About midnight one of the 
gentlemanly hotel assistants ushered in a stranger, 
with the remark that he knew us and desired to share 
part of our couch. We regarded the stranger for a 
moment, and hesttated to comply with the modest re- 
quest. " Well, mister," said our friend, with a gen- 
tle wave of his body to and fro, " if you don't give 
me part of your bed, you needn't ; but there isn't any 
other place for me to sleep but the sidewalk, and (hie) 
there isn't any sidewalk." We concluded to allow 
him a part of the bed ; but he had scarcely touched 
the pillow when he commenced snoring as if he in- 
tended to start the roof from the rafters. We gently 
punched him in the ribs, and he uttered, in a beseech- 
ing tone of voice, " Mister, do you want a thousand 



84 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

dollars ?" We replied we had money enough — only 
desired him to stop snoring. " Well, mister, if you 
do want a thousand dollars you shall have it, by gorry.' , 
It is thus with some of the natives of this curious 
region. While some, we say, are avaricious and are 
continually grasping for more, others again are liberal 
to the last degree, and no worthy object of charity is 
allowed to pass unbefriended by them. Some time 
since one of the lucky citizens (Captain Vandergrift) 
presented to one of the churches a bell, which was too 
large for the belfry.,, A derrick had to be erected on 
the premises, in which to hang the bell, and the whole 
affair was so characteristic of the region that the 
church was christened by some of the Oil creek boys 
" The Church of the Holy Derrick," and is so recog- 
nized. 

THE FIRST STORE AND THE FOUNDER OF THE OIL 
CREEK ARISTOCRACY. 

The first large store built in Oil City was erected 
by a worthy gentleman by the name of John Hopewell, 
who, with his amiable and accomplished daughters, 
may be considered the actual founders of the Oil City 
or petroleum aristocracy. They were the prime 
movers in all the sociables, picnics, &c,, of the early 
days of the place, and were regarded* as the life and 
soul of fashionable life. One of the daughters has 
since married a gentleman in Meadville. John Hope- 
well is everywhere regarded as an upright, high toned 
gentleman, and, with his family, are an ornament and 
addition to respectable society anywhere. Dr. Bagg, 
formerly from Michigan, and agent of the Michigan 
Rock Oil Company ; Mr. Lay, of Laytonia, and family, 
formerly from Cincinnati ; Messrs. Byles & Brown, 
who opened the second store, were among the earliest 
settlers who gave character to the place. Then came 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 85 

several Michigan families, with the Michigan Company 
and with excellent taste and intelligence assisted m 
framing society from the crude elements by which 
they were surrounded. Since then several respected 
families from the eastward have settled in the place, 
and altogether society in Oil City is as refined as you 
will find it in any new country. 

Among the most active business oflices in Oil City 
is that of Fiske & Co., for the sale of oil lands, trans- 
fer of leases, interest in oil wells, &c. Mr. Fiske is a 
nephew of the late Judge Douglas ; the second mem- 
ber of the firm is Mr. H. S. Stevens, a well known and 
highly respected citizen of Cleveland, and the third is 
Mr. C. J. Fox, formerly United States Consul at Aspin- 
wall. Mr. J. B. Chandler, of Lacon, Illinois, caught 
the oil fever at Oil City, and has sunk two wells in 
Livingston county, Illinois. 

William A. Shreve, Esq., is also a prominent citi- 
zen of Oil City. He is President of the National 
Bank, "William C. Tillson, Esq., an active resident 
is with Mr. Shreve. John H. Coleman, Esq., J. H. 
Winsor, Esq., (Franklin), Captain Vandergrift, Corne- 
lius Curtis, Esq., George Barker, C. McKinley, Ste- 
phen H. Standart, of Franklin — a pioneer, very active 
— Joseph Bonefante, James Kincaid, young Critten- 
den, of Titusville — who got up the Crittenden Hall — 
and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others, whose 
names it is impossible now to recall, and all hailing 
from various parts of Oil creek region, are among the 
lively spirits of the territory, and very successful in 
their business 

PERSONALS 

Among other gentlemen who have made money out 
of oil and speculation in lands in this region may be 
enumerated the following : 



86 ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 

Mark A. Perry, resides in Utica, New York, form- 
erly in Kouseville, made a pile of money out of the 
McClintock farm, part of which property has just been 
: sold for $160,000. He is a gentleman of family, high- 
ly esteemed, enjoys life in a reasonable way, and is a 
whole souled representative of the petroleum aris- 
tocracy. 

Hamilton McClintock, of McClintockville, a pioneer 
in the region, first gathered the oil in a rude way, and 
sold it for years ; owns several steamers on the Alle- 
ghany, has a fine residence, a large family (eight or 
nine children), is robust and hearty, and as honest a 
looking man as you will see in a day's walk in Oil or 
any other creek. 

Captain B. R. Alden, formerly on General Scott's 
staff, and wounded in the service of the United States, 
among the first to come here and enter into the -oil 
business, bought an interest on the Buchanan and 
McClintock /arms ; realized a fortune and still retains 
a large portion of his property ; is a high-toned, hon- 
orable gentleman, and lives in style in the city of New 
York. 

George M. Mowbray, formerly of London, now of New 
York, the first agent sent out by New York parties — 
Schieffelin Brothers — to the oil region, is now in Titus- 
ville. Interested in wells, and puts np the best and 
most expensive works in these drillings. Has one of 
the best of families, and is liked for his good sense, 
liberality and public spirit. 

James Parker, Titus ville, formerly a merchant in 
New York city, bought property in Titusville. Ifc 
became valuable, and* he is now rich, hospitable, has 
great suavity of manners, a family, and is much 
esteemed. 

J. W. Sherman, of Titusville, formerly of Saratoga, 
New York. Once a poor man, now worth a half a 
million ; the original owner of the celebrated flowing 



ALL ABOUT PETROLEUM. 87 

well known as the :i Sherman well/' which at one 
time came near overflowing the whole region with 
liquid bitumen. Is an unassuming gentleman, with a 
pleasant, honest face and most agreeable manners. 
Has a family. Occasionally spends some time in New 
York. A very active business man. 

Daniel Gregg, owner of the Gregg farm, below the 
Miller farm, was poor, and hardly keeps pace with the 
progressive spirit of the age. Farm not much devel- 
oped. Asks four hundred thousand dollars in gold 
for it : and is very shy when any one offers to purchase 
it at his own price. Was at the Astor House last 
spring, and proved himself to be a very domesticated 
person, considering his means. 

Robert Miller, of Miller's farm, four or five miles 
below Titusville. Is a perfect specimen of a native, 
a bachelor about forty, being too modest to speak to a 
young woman ; lives with his mother ; hair brilliant 
auburn ; honest as the longest day of the year, strictly 
conscientious, and with a comical expression of visage 
worthy of imitation by any delineator of the humorous 
on the stage. Unprotected females can appear about 
honest Bob Miller's drillings with perfect safety. 
The Indian Bock Oil Company is located on this farm. 

John Brown came to the pleasant village of Pleas- 
antville, about five miles east of Titusville, from New 
York city, about thirty years ago, and entered into the 
general merchandise business. Mr. Brown prospered 
well, and his sons, of the firm of Brown Brothers, now 
carry on a most extensive business in banking, buy- 
ing and selling real estate, and have just completed a 
fine private residence for their mother. Samuel Q. 
Brown, one of the firm, is interested largely in oil ter- 
ritory, and is an active member of a number of petro- 
leum companies. All the brothers are active business 
men. of lively dispositions ; very rich, young, not bad 



88 ALL ABOUT PETEOLEUM. 

looking, and, what will be more interesting to your 
young lady readers, bachelors. Unlike Bobbie Miller, 
however, it is not to be supposed that they are ever 
frightened at a pretty, modest face. Last November 
Mr. Brown bought the J John Duncan farm, sixty-eight 
acres, above Titusville, on Pine creek, for $1,100. He 
has just disposed of it to Massachusetts parties for the 
sum of twenty thousand dollars ; reserving a quarter 
of the stock. It is a new region, just being devel- 
oped. Some wells have been sunk. 

C. J. Lloyd, Esq., is among the most energetic 
operators in the oil region. He is tireless in indus- 
trious works, and esteemed one of the most reliable 
men in the country. He is largely interested in oil 
territory, and does a heavy business in New York, 
Philadelphia, &c. 

Mr. Funk, of Titusville, owner of the Funk farm, a 
very rich oil territory, the proprietor of Funkville, &c, 
is regarded as among the wealthiest young men in the 
whole region. He is administrator of the valuable 
estate of his father, Captain Funk, and is largely inter- 
ested in oil territory in other parts of the country, 
particularly in a large tract in the State of Kentucky. 
His fortune may be set down at a million and a half. 

F. Prentice, Esq., is also a very large and influential 
operator in oil lands. An active and reliable gentleman, 
good natured, and warm hearted and intelligent. His 
word is as good as " the bond of union'' — perhaps bet 
ter. Is very wealthy, and enjoys a very high reputa- 
tion for integrity both in New York, where he trans- 
acts business, and at home among his neighbors. 

George H. Bissell, Esq., of Franklin, Pa., formerly 
from New Orleans, realized a splendid fortune from 
early operations in the Oil creek region, and is enti- 
tled to much credit for his personal and untiring ex- 
ertions in developing the oil territory. 

i Lore. 



INCORPORATED UNDER THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF N. YORK, 

Wells on Oil Creek, Pennsylvania. 

CAPITAL, 25,000 SHARES. 

PAR VALUE OF SHARES, TEN DOLLARS EACH. 



Morris Franklin, New York. John H. Coleman, Oil City Pa. 
James N . Lawton, " C. McKinley, " 

Sidney Cornell, J. J. Vandergrift, 

George Davis, New York. 



(i 



President, MORRIS FRANKLIN". 
Secretary, H. B. HENSON. 
Treasurer, WALTER E. LAWTON. 
Superintendents, McKINLEY BROS. 

Office, 81 John Street, New York. 

©LOFT®^ iPgT^OUEIUJIMI ©OW^hUY 

INCORPORATED SEPTEMBER 1, 1864, 

UNDER THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 

Wells on Cherry Run and Cherry Tree Run, Penn'v'ia* 

CAPITAL, 50,000 SHARES. 

PAR VALUE OF SHARES, $10 EACH. 

TRUSTEES. 

James C. Wilson, New York, John T. Daly, New York. 
James N. Lawton, " John H. Coleman, Oil City, Pa. 

Sidney Cornell, " David D. Hammond, " <( 

George Davis, New York. 

President, James C. Wilson. 
Secretary, H. B. Henson. 
Treasurer, Walter E. Lawton. 
Superintendent, J. B. Chichester. 

Office, 81 John Street^ New York. 



PETROLEUM OIL STOCKS. 
WILLIAM A. GWYER, 

BROKER IN 

Petroleum Oil ? and Petroleum Stocks and 

Lands. 
■ I have for sale Petroleum lands in desirable localities, and 
oil stocks of the most approved companies. 

^ Parties having lands and stocks for sale are invited to re- 
gister the same on my books, with accurate descriptions. 

The public may rely on obtaining good dividend paying 
securities at my office. 
Information given to persons seeking investments. 

WILLIAM A. GWYER 
No. 132 Maiden Lane, New York. 

THE HIGHGATE PETROLEUM COMPANY 

Incorporated under the Laws of the State of New York, 
August 16, 1864. 

Capital 300,000 Shares, at the nominal par-value of $5 
each, issued in payment of property. 

The property of this Company consists of about 125 acres 
of "land in fee simple, situated upon the Alleghany River, 
about four miles from the mouth of Oil Creek, (below) Penn- 
sylvania. Upon this property there are now down to a 
limited depth four wells. 

The following productive properties will belong to this 
Company. The Jenkins' property, consisting of 21 acres 
upon Oil Creek, in the Mcllhenny Farm . 

Also one-fourth of all the oil in two wells down upon 
another ten acres. One-sixteenth in two wells, one-eighth 
in three, and one-twentieth in two wells now going down. 
One-sixth of all the oil in the remaining land to be leased, 
sufficient for at least forty more wells. 

The Jersey Well — three sixty-fourths in this new flowing 
well, now running 480 barrels The Porter Well, three sixty- 
fourths in this flowing well now running over 100 barrels. 
Maple Shade, one sixty-fourth in this flowing well now run- 
ning 180 barrels per day. 

Officers. — President, J. F. Schepeler ; Treasurer, H. 
Holthausen ; Secretary, Chs. Throckmorton. 

Trustees. — J. F. Schepeler, of Schepeler & Co. ; Fred. 
Schuchardt, of Schuchardt & Gebhard; Louis Jay, of Christ, 
Jay t% Co.; Chs. Holzapfel, of Troost, Schroeder & Co.; 
Hei man Kamlah, of Kami ah, Sauer & Co. ; William H. 
Smith, of William H. Smith & Sons; W. F. Roelofson. 

Counsel, — Piatt, Gerard & Buckley. 

Office, 33 Pine Street, New York. 



New YorS* and Liverpool Petroleum Co. 

CAPITAL STOCK, $1,000,000. 

100,000 SHARES AT $10 EACH. 

Lands already yielding largely. 

President, Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson. 
Yiee President, William T. Phtpps. 
Secretary, Robert Bassett. 

Books are open for subscription at the office of the Company, 71 Broad- 
way, Empire Buildings (Room 24) , New York. 

The lands of this company are situated in the heart of the oil regions, 
ind include portions of those well-known localities, the vicElheny farm, 
the two McClintock farms, and other proved and valuable working ter- 
ory, including 

Over Two Thousand Acres in Fee 

Of the Best Oil Territory along Oil Creek and in West Virginia, 

Now under Process of Successful Development, and 

Oil is Largely and Regularly produced from several Wells upon them. 

Address The New York and Liverpool Petroleum Co., 

Box 5,368, Post-office, New York City. 

M'SmiSZ mo. 2 ©III COMMH7, 

INCORPORATED OCT. 13, 1864, 

UNDER THE LAWS OP THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 

Wells on Oil Creek, Pennsylvania. 

Capital, 25,000 Sliares — Par value of Shares, $10 each 

trustees. 
J. E. Soutkworth (Pres't Atlantic Bank), New York. 
E. S. Rich (Messrs. Rich & Sherman, Bankers), New York. 
Rich'd L. Franklin (Yonkers & N. Y. Ins. Co.), " 

John Crompton, 35 Liberty street, " 

J. J. Yandergrift (First National Bank), Oil City, Pa. 

President, J. E. Southworth. 

Treasurer and Secretary, R. W. R. Freeman. 

OFFICE, ATLANTIC BANK, NEW YORK CITY 






ALL ABOUT PETKOLEUM 

$ illddt) Journal 

DEVOTED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
PETROLEUM INTEREST. 



The object of the publication of this Journal is to furnish all 
the information available on Petroleum, Petroleum Lands? and 
Petroleum Stocks, which is anywhere to be found; 

It is got up in the very best style, and with a view of enabling 
the subscriber to have it bound ; so that this Journal will form 
a complete history of the growth of the Petroleum Interest for 
future reference. 

It is for sale by all first-class Newsdealers throughout the 
country. The trade is supplied by 
THE AMERICAN NEWS Co., 121 Nassau-street, N. Y. 

Subscriptions, at $5 per year, should be addressed to the 
publishers, 

C. PFIRSHim % Co., 34 Liberty -street, New York, 

Germania Petroleum Company, 

Office, 33 Pine Street, New York. 

Incorporated under the Laws of the State of New York, Septem- 
ber 7, 1864. 
Capital, 600,000 shares, 

At the nominal par value of $5 00 each, issued in payment 
of property. 

This Company has nine wells now producing, and fourteen 
wells partially clown, some of which may become productive 
at any moment. Add to this the large amount of territory 
in possession, upon which may be sunk from one hundred to 
two hundred wells ; and as it is the policy of this Company 
to push this development with great rapidity and vigor, it 
must be evident to stockholders that they may reasonably 
look for largely increasing dividends. 

OFFICERS. 

President J. F. Schepeler. 

Treasurer H. Holthausen. 

Secretary Charles Throckmorton. 

Trustees 

J. F. Schepeler, of Schepel er & Co. 

Fred. Schuchardt, of Schuchardt & Gebhard. 

Louis Jay, of Christ, Jay & Co. 

William F. Roelofson. 

Ghas. Holzapfel, of Troost, Schroeder & Co 

Charles Lueling. of Charles Lueling & < 0. 

Hermann It. Baltzer, of Marcuse & Baltzer. 

L. F Leberman , of Philadelphia. 

Emii Sauer, of Kamlah, Sauer & Co. 
Counsel Piatt, Gerard & Bulckley. 




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